The city of Coral Gables, Florida, has tight regulations that keep its neighborhoods and homes beautiful. But a regulation that forbade residents from parking pickup truck on streets and in driveways at night has been ruled unconstitutional.
"last week, a state appeals court panel struck down one of this affluent city's premier zoning requirements: a ban on parking pickup trucks in driveways and on residential streets at night."
"Lowell Kuvin, an aspiring lawyer with an emerald-green Ford F150 pickup, sued Coral Gables in 2003 after being fined for parking on the street in front of his rented home. A trial court judge sided with the city, but a panel of the Third District Court of Appeal reversed his finding, ruling that Coral Gables had 'unconstitutionally crossed the line' into an 'impermissible interference with the personal rights of its residents.'"
"The implications could be big for Coral Gables, whose proud status in South Florida as the 'City Beautiful' hinges on the strictly regulated look of its neighborhoods. Pickup trucks - even the Ford F150, the best-selling vehicle in the country last year - are a scourge on the city's image, officials and many residents say."
Thanks to Larry Armstrong
FULL STORY: A City Defines Beautiful, but a Truck Owner and a Court Object
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