Council members say Sixth Street landscaping business meets city driveway rules despite neighbor complaints

At a recent City Council caucus, council members discussed complaints about a landscaping business on Sixth Street that residents say has converted a front yard into a large gravel parking area for work trucks. The discussion centered on whether the property violates the city’s driveway and parking ordinance and what, if any, next steps are available.

Why it matters: Neighbors told council members they are concerned about commercial vehicles parked in a residential area and the visual impact on the street. Council members noted the city’s ordinance sets the standards staff must enforce and said the property currently falls within those written rules.

Council members and staff described what they observed: multiple work trucks on the property (one council member said six trucks and a car were present during a drive-by), removal of excavators and trailers that had been cited, and a gravel surface installed up to the sidewalk. A council member said those conditions align with the city’s ordinance, which regulates the conversion of lawn to a hard surface driveway or parking area and permits gravel or grindings as acceptable surfacing under current rules.

Several council members and residents said the owner had told the council he would “dig out” the front yard and install a driveway; others said the finished result appeared to be limited gravel and not the more substantial driveway they had expected. Council members noted frustration when an outcome differs from what was described to them, but staff said they could not require changes that fall within the ordinance without initiating a revision to the code.

No motion or formal enforcement action was taken at the caucus. A council member suggested the only substantive remedy, short of an enforcement finding, would be to change the ordinance; staff said that would be a separate legislative process and would require drafting and public hearings.

The caucus included an offer for council members to visit the site together and a suggestion to review the ordinance language if they want to limit the size or appearance of permissible front-yard hard surfaces. For now, staff reported that the previously cited excavators and trailers are gone and that the property is on gravel, which staff said resolves the specific ordinance violations that had been cited previously.