LOS ANGELES, Calif.–The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted today in support of an ordinance that would prohibit parking cars for sale along some county roads and highways.
Supervisor Gloria Molina recommended the ordinance, saying some streets had been turned into impromptu car lots. Pacific Boulevard in Walnut Park is one popular site for these unregulated, unlicensed sales.
Posting a for-sale sign in a vehicle and parking it on a busy street slows traffic because people pull over, and sometimes double park, to look at cars, according to attorneys for the county. Officials also associate the practice with jaywalking and reduced parking for nearby businesses.
If the ordinance applied to specific streets only, car sellers might simply move to the next convenient location, Supervisor Don Knabe said.
He and Molina offered an amendment to give Department of Public Works employees the ability to post signs barring for-sale vehicles wherever traffic congestion and nuisance activity justify a ban.
An existing ordinance ban parking “for sale” cars anywhere, but county attorneys have not pursued its enforcement, because similar laws have been ruled unconstitutional. That was the case in Los Angeles, where such a law was found to abridge freedom of speech.
The amended ordinance is designed to stand up to such a legal challenge.
It would prohibit the practice and call for signs to be
Violators would be ticketed for a first offense. Twenty-four hours later, if the ticketed vehicle’s for-sale sign remained, it could be impounded, even if it had been moved to another street.
The ordinance will return to the board for its final administrative approval.
By Elizabeth Marcellino | City News Service
