Anyone from the Hampton Roads area - Virginia? Trailer question

This may be a long shot, but figured there's gotta be at least a couple of people here living in this area. I just moved here (Virginia Beach to be more specific) for work, and just got a code violation notice from the city for having my trailer parked outside in the driveway at my rental house. Never thought to really look into this before because the thought that this wouldn't be allowed never crossed my mind. In the midwest this isn't a problem in any city that I've seen or lived in.

Looking online at city codes it looks like I should be fine if it's under 7 feet tall and 20 feet long, which mine is, but I still got a violation notice. I checked surrounding cities and they have similar requirements. Regardless, I planned on upgrading to something a little bit bigger down the road anyway....so my question for anyone that lives in this area (Va Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake or Portsmouth) is what do you do with your trailers?? I can't see myself getting rid of the trailer, otherwise I might as well quit racing and track days altogether (which I really don't want to).

Really disappointed by all of this. Never thought that out of all things, THIS would be a problem

 

Lots of places have restrictions on trailers. The best bet is to check before you move. It can be in the city, county or HOA / condo rules. Up here in Alexandria, the trailer must be parked behind the line marking the "front" of your house and the size allowed depends on your lot size.

Take the measurements, look through all of the ordenances. If you discover you are legal, you will just have to live with the smaller trailer and fight the violation. Only other choice is to rent a storage location for it. Best of luck.

Hopefully someone that lives in your city can give more specific advice.

 

Or you put it in a storage yard, like many of us in land shortage California do.

 

That's a PITA though. Way too much hassle to deal with. Every time I leave I'd have to load up EVERYTHING in it, and then unload it all when I return, which defeats the purpose of having an enclosed trailer. The whole reason why I bought an enclosed one is so I don't have to do that. My toolbox, gear, and spare parts all stay in the trailer. Sometimes the bikes do too if I don't have anything to work on them until the following event. If I have to store it somewhere else, I can't leave all that stuff in it because I may need it at home (like tools and such). Plus that costs extra money each month too.

 

Yeah I know I should've checked before, but I didn't think of it because aside from HOA's which exist everywhere, I didn't think this would be a problem. I made sure to look for a house that's not in an HOA just for that reason, but I didn't think the whole city forbids trailers in front of your house. Guess you live and learn. Now i know what to look for in the future.

So what do you do in Alexandria? I understand parking it next to the house, but what if you don't have that option? If you don't have a driveway or any space on either side of the house but you have a big ass driveway in front of the garage?

 

It is probably legal to park your trailer in the backyard. Check with the city.

 

Fortunately, I have the largest zoned lot at 20k+ Sq Ft. lot which allows up to 25'. That is more than enough for my 6x12 trailer (about 15.5' long I think). I have a side load garage and park it past the garage doors, so we can still use the garage. With the narrow street I live on, it is hard enough getting the 6x12 turned up the driveway, so not sure I would want anything bigger anyway unless I got the city to allow me to widen the driveway entry. The driveway entry is actually on their land, so yeah, I would need their permission. You can have a bigger trailer or RV in Alexandria, but you have to have it in a garage as Mongo already figure out above. Sorry to hear about your issue.

 

I had to do this with my first open trailer. I lived in a hood that had a rabid HOA. If I left the trailer in my driveway for a day they would shit! Day 2 the City code enforcer would come by to cite me. So I would keep the trailer in the driveway about a day max just to piss the HOA off. Then put it on the side of my house when not in use. I had to modify the fence in a way that I could unlatch it quickly to put the trailer behind it. Put some patio stones down for the tires.

 

At the moment I'm living in a short-term rental until late April, and there is enough space next to the house to park it there. I called the code inspector today and she suggested doing that. Of course it's kind of a pain because it's all mulch and/or rocks in that area, nothing paved, and it's not very flat. It'll be ok for now since I don't think I'll be using the trailer more than like once or twice anyway before I have to move out. But knowing what I know now is definitely going to impact my house search. So far I was looking at houses with a double garage and double driveway (which is already hard enough to find in my price range). But now that's not gonna work, and I'll have to look for a house that has a side driveway with a detached garage in the back yard. Bad part is most of the houses that I've seen with that style/layout have just a narrow driveway (around 10 feet) with a single garage, so that would mean bikes and other stuff will take up the garage, trailer will block the driveway, and truck will have to sit outside. I haven't had to park a vehicle outside since I was in college lol...I got spoiled with having one, and I'm already hating having the truck outside since I've been here!

 

I can't imagine living anywhere where someone can tell me where I can and can't park my shit.

 

Don't ever move to California.

I can't wait to leave this forsaken land. I had no idea what I was getting myself into

 

many cities are like that.

 

That's why I'll never live in one.

 

I still amazed that I can do some many things in my house now. Like vacuum at night, play music loudly, do repairs on the house on the weekend. All of these things weren't allowed in my previous condo.

 

I'll never live in an apartment or even a townhome/duplex again. Gotta be a house! Ideally since I don't have much money and I live by myself I wouldn't mind a small 2-bed 1-bath house with a triple garage, but NOBODY makes anything like that! lol If I want a big garage I have to go for a 4-bed 3-bath house that costs like $300k or more which I can't afford.

 

I never had a problem with my trailer in Chesapeake or Va Bch. Mine stayed in the back yard, though. I knew one or 2 peeps that kept theirs in front because of room and don't remember them having problems. Wonder if someone called the city on ya...

 

I'm about about 85% sure someone bitched about it. I doubt they have inspectors patrolling every street all the time. The people you speak of must've got lucky or had cool neighbors. The place where I'm staying now is also a pretty busy street. Lots of traffic here, which means there are a shit load of people that drive by my house each day, so the chance of someone bitching about it is pretty high. To be honest, having driven around various neighborhoods the last couple of weeks I must say I have not seen a single trailer parked in any driveway in front of any house so far. So either they do patrol streets a lot or everyone just knows the code and abides by it....unlike me who was clueless about it lol

 

you can inquire with the code officer if it was a neighbor complaint or a random violation citing.

 

I could, but I forgot when I talked to her yesterday. Don't think it really matters much though, I still have to move it. And I doubt she'd tell me exactly who it was anyway, but she likely doesn't even know.