SR residents complain that parked or abandoned vehicles clog streets and create neighborhood eyesores

Drive down most any street in Santa Rosa and what is it that you see?

Vehicles. Lots of them.

Cars, vans, trucks, RVs, trailers, boats and any number of other movable -- and immovable -- objects have turned many streets into parking lots, and some homes into junkyards.

"People who are taking pride in their property and fixing it up, all of the effort is in vain if neighbors have cars and boats parked on lawns," said Nolan Pahud, a retired Continental Airlines employee who lives in the Valley West neighborhood.

Pahud moved to Santa Rosa from Daly City in 2004 to enjoy the Wine Country ambiance. What he didn't realize is that in the Bay Area, Sonoma County is second only to Marin in the number of vehicles per capita, according to Census data.

That fact is readily apparent in the county's most populous city, where there is a palpable feeling of rage over vehicles clogging roads and littering yards.

Some are taking up space illegally. Santa Rosa police hauled away 862 abandoned or improperly stowed vehicles last year. And calls for service keep pouring in.

"It's not unusual for me to come in on a Monday morning and have 35 messages," said Amy Repoff, the Police Department's vehicle abatement officer. "Right now I have 50 open complaints on cars, but I'm only one person, so they end up waiting."

Repoff said she can understand the frustration, as there are several illegal vehicles littering her own street.

"I don't want to be the one to tow away my neighbors' cars," she said.

Most vehicles packed into city streets are not there illegally, but are simply the everyday modes of transportation in an automobile-dependent culture.

Yet the effect in many neighborhoods is like the tides of the ocean -- vehicles leaving in the morning as people head off to work or other activities, before returning home at night and settling in.

People complain about having to dodge traffic on streets that in effect have become one-lane roads because of so many parked vehicles.

"You're trying to get out of the driveway, and it can be a real challenge," said Judy Kennedy, who lives on Oak Street in the downtown Burbank neighborhood.

Others lament that they can't even park in front of their own homes.

Courtesy vs. my space

There was a time when courtesy dictated that the space in front of your home was off-limits to anyone other than the homeowners or their visitors. That's a thing of the past in neighborhoods where people fight for any available space they can get.

"It's a big issue around here. Everybody feels they should have a designated spot or maybe two," said Reynaldo Rodriguez, who lives on Crosspoint Avenue in northwest Santa Rosa. "When you get people from outside the area parking here, it raises some eyebrows."

Rodriguez has been on the receiving end of a complaint, after the city sent him a letter informing him that he had to store a tent-trailer that he had parked on his side lawn or it would be towed.

As a result, he sold the trailer and bought a fifth-wheeler, which he stores elsewhere.

"If they're going to complain about a little box, they're going to complain about the 27-footer," he said.

Complaints about problem vehicles are flooding into the Police Department's abatement hot line from all over the city, said Repoff, who's currently processing 300 abatement cases that could lead to vehicles' getting towed.

Asked for the top five worst areas of the city for abandoned vehicles, she listed: the Corby Avenue area, particularly the streets ending in "wood"; the Sunset Avenue and Delport Avenue area off Stony Point Road in Roseland; the Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhood; Apple Valley and South Park.

"You cannot drive down a single street in Santa Rosa and not find them," she said. "It's just, if I were to stop for every single one, I'd never get anything done."

To prove her point, she pointed out six illegal vehicles on Montgomery Drive between Yulupa Avenue and Farmers Lane while making her rounds last week in the Police Department's vehicle abatement van.

The scofflaws included an older model Mercedes and a detached camper shell stashed on separate front lawns, a recreational vehicle parked on a street -- possibly in violation of the city's 72-hour "move it or lose it" law -- and a van conversion with expired registration parked in a driveway.

Repoff and several tow truck drivers hauled away a dilapidated Cadillac and an RV from a property on Mission Boulevard and Highway 12, a graffiti-covered Lincoln Continental from the parking lot of a church on Stony Point Road and a wrecked Plymouth Neon parked in the Northpoint neighborhood.

Not just Santa Rosa

Every city in Sonoma County struggles with similar problems.

Petaluma Councilman Mike O'Brien said people often complain to him about cars parked in front of their homes. O'Brien, a former CHP officer, reminds them that these are public streets.

But he empathizes.

"People need to take responsibility for their own vehicles," he said. "If you've got four parking places at your house, you shouldn't own 10 cars, unless you've got some place to park them other than city streets."

In Windsor, complaints about boats and RVs tend to rise in the spring when people are preparing for vacations, said Sgt. Steve Gossett.

The reasons behind soaring vehicle ownership include increases in household income, increased suburbanization and larger average household size, according to a report by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

In 1960, there were 57,863 registered vehicles in the county. In 2005, that number had mushroomed to 345,265, according to Census data.

Today, the average household in Sonoma County owns two vehicles. A full quarter of the county's households own three or more, the MTC found.

Many older homes were designed for one-car families, and have at a maximum one- or two-car garages, said Mike Reynolds, Santa Rosa's code enforcement officer. Space is further limited when garages are used for storage or converted into living space, leaving the driveway and the street for parking.

No room in the garage

In Santa Rosa, home developers are required to provide two spaces for parking on the property -- one covered -- and two more spaces on the street. Many families find that's not enough.

Reynolds uses himself as an example. He said his family has four cars -- one each for him and his wife and two for their children. His garage is used for storage.

Jason Martinez, a tow truck driver who helped Repoff remove cars last week, said he's upset by people who park their cars outside his Calistoga Road home with "for sale" signs in the window.

He said there have been times when people have lifted the handle on one of his cars or peeked in the windows in the mistaken belief that they, too, were being sold.

"Any time you have people come to your house, what are you going to do? There's no place to park," he said.

In Santa Rosa, it's legal to park a vehicle on a city street to try to sell it, so long as it is moved every 72 hours.

Santa Rosa Mayor Bob Blanchard called problem vehicles a "huge" issue for the city, one that he predicts will only worsen as the population increases and people move into homes that are too small for their needs.

"It's a continuing saga of our car-oriented culture," he said. "The rite of passage is 16, and there's not a kid on the block who doesn't want his car."

Some neighborhoods are fighting back by having the city install permit parking that limits who can stop there and for how long they can stay.

As one example, nearly 100 homeowners living near Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital won city support in March to create two-hour parking zones on several streets east of the hospital.

Many people are reluctant to confront their neighbors face-to-face about a problem, fearing retaliation such as vandalism to their own property.

In the West End neighborhood, residents who've complained to businesses about employees and customers parking outside their homes have had their cars vandalized, said Carol Dean, president of a neighborhood association.

Rather than talk to his neighbor about a boat the man has stored on his lawn, Pahud sent e-mails to Blanchard, several City Council members and Reynolds, as well as phoning the Police Department's vehicle abatement hot line.

Going directly to the top had the desired effect. The Police Department directed Repoff to make Valley West the focus of a "180 Wednesday," a police canvas of the neighborhood in search of illegal vehicles.

Such sweeps are typically conducted once a month.

California law states that inoperable, unregistered or abandoned vehicles can be towed. Under state law and local ordinances, vehicles left on the street or on private property for more than 72 hours also can be hauled away.

Warning letters

The city usually sends a letter warning people to take care of the problem. Failing to do so could lead to a criminal complaint and a court hearing. But that's rare.

With only a handful of code enforcement officers, problem vehicles often don't get the attention that they should, Reynolds acknowledged.

"It's not our highest priority," he said.

The Police Department tries to pick up the slack but with only one abatement officer -- Repoff -- it's a tall order to service a city of 157,000 people.

Not everyone is pleased to see her van pull into their neighborhood. Repoff said she's been attacked by angry vehicle owners. Last year, she was seriously injured when a motorist struck a tow truck that then slammed into her body, throwing her 15 feet.

Her reward, she said, is getting thanks from people who are grateful to have an eyesore hauled away.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.