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Pinal County staff propose five‑page parking ordinance to address semis, RVs and nuisance parking
Summary
County engineer presented a draft five‑page ordinance to regulate parking in the public right of way in unincorporated Pinal County; proposal would allow no‑parking zones, ban heavy trucks on residentially zoned streets and impose 48‑hour limits on RVs and inoperable vehicles, with complaint‑driven enforcement.
Chris Wanamaker, Pinal County engineer, presented a draft five‑page parking ordinance during the board’s Jan. 22 work session and asked supervisors for feedback before returning with a revised draft.
The draft ordinance would: authorize the board and the county engineer to establish no‑parking zones on safety grounds after engineering or traffic studies; create a resident petition process for neighborhood no‑parking zones; bar heavy trucks (for example, semitrailers) on streets in residentially zoned areas; and prohibit recreational vehicles and inoperable vehicles parked on a public road for more than 48 consecutive hours.
Why it matters: several supervisors described chronic nuisance parking in subdivisions and other unincorporated neighborhoods — semis and RVs parked on narrow streets, vehicles idling early in the morning and vehicles blocking sight lines at intersections. County staff said the ordinance is intended to give the county and sheriff’s office legally enforceable tools that currently are limited or unavailable.
Wanamaker noted the draft’s short length. "It is only 5 pages long," he told the board. He described enforcement options in the draft: complaint‑driven citations, vehicle immobilization devices (boots) and towing. "This ordinance gives the authority to the sheriff's office and our code compliance team, to issue $250 citations per vehicle or to immobilize a vehicle with a device called a boot... or, of course, towing," Wanamaker said.
Board members sought clarifications and exemptions. Supervisors asked whether the 48‑hour limit would override municipal rules inside incorporated cities (staff said the draft applies only to unincorporated county rights‑of‑way), whether owners with large rural lots would be exempt and how the county would handle truck drivers who lack affordable centralized parking. Several supervisors urged adding a warning step before fines are issued and suggested additional outreach to HOAs and neighborhoods.
The draft acknowledges recent state law changes that affected homeowners associations: House Bill 2298 (effective Oct. 30, 2023) limits HOAs’ authority over public‑road parking unless the HOA holds a post‑2014 membership vote to preserve that authority. Staff said that shift increases the county’s potential responsibility to address neighborhood parking disputes.
Next steps outlined by Wanamaker included distributing a revised draft to justice courts and clerks, publishing a notice of hearing in the newspaper of record and bringing the ordinance back to the board for a public hearing and possible adoption at a Feb. 19 meeting. Supervisors asked for one more internal work session before publishing so the board can review proposed edits on exemptions and enforcement language.
Staff said enforcement would be complaint‑driven; no additional county enforcement staff are planned. Wanamaker and supervisors discussed non‑county options such as leasing or designating county property for centralized truck parking, but no decision was made on that approach during the session.
