Special magistrate: driveway boat is a front-yard violation despite owner calling it a "planter"

A City of Newberry special magistrate found that a boat parked in a residential front driveway violated the city's front-yard and parking rules and ordered the owner to bring the property into compliance within 30 days or face $50-per-day fines.

The owner, identified in the hearing as Miss McElhaney, testified that she had placed plants in the vessel and called it a planter. Miss McElhaney said she posted notices and showed photographs she said documented the boat on the property on multiple dates, including October 14, 2024, November 7, 2024, and January 6, 2025. "I converted it to a planter. Everybody loved it. It went viral on Facebook," she said during sworn testimony.

The magistrate rejected that defense for the purposes of the city code enforcement finding. "While it may be a planter, it is also a boat at the same exact time, and it is, being parked in the front driveway," the Special Magistrate said. The magistrate said the property owner would have 30 days to come into compliance and that, if not, the city would assess $50 per day. The magistrate also said the hearing record did not authorize imposing a countywide lien without a separate request: "I don't think in this hearing I can authorize it to be imposed as a lien." The magistrate directed that the $150 full cost of prosecution would be assessed but could be waived if compliance occurred within 30 days.

The magistrate and participants discussed the limits of the hearing. The magistrate said local code defines front-yard parking and that the appropriate remedy for a change in the parking rules would be an ordinance change by the governing body rather than an administrative hearing: "The place to change that is not here. All we're here to do is to decide whether that boat's being left in front of the house or not." A question from the bench about exemptions for credentialed operators (e.g., a captain's license) was deferred to other staff and to future hearings.

This decision resolved the administrative finding for this case. The magistrate recorded the compliance timeline and fines and moved on to subsequent code cases on the docket.

Ending: The magistrate's order requires the owner to remove or relocate the boat within 30 days to avoid daily fines; the magistrate did not authorize immediate recording of a county lien from this hearing.