Clairemont residents getting ticketed in their own driveways, prompting petition

San Diego resident James Huffaker has a problem. Every time he parks his car in his driveway, he's in violation of city parking rules.

"We're getting $80 tickets anytime we park the car where it belongs," Huffaker told NBC 7.

Many of his neighbors on Idlewild Way and nearby streets in the Clairemont and Bay Ho neighborhoods have the same issue.

"We’re not alone," Huffaker said. "Every third house all the way down our street and on Jemez Drive have the same problem. We're on our second ticket this year. Our neighbor has had three tickets."

The crux of the problem is that homes in this neighborhood, like so many in San Diego, were built as military housing in the 1950s with short driveways that fit many of the cars of that era.

In the driveway of his Idlewild Way home, Huffaker took out a tool to measure the length of the driveway from the sidewalk to the garage door. It measures 13.1 feet. Huffaker says his small SUV is 15.4 feet, leading to the rear end of his car to extend into the sidewalk a couple of inches.

For years, the city has looked the other way on this problem, according to Huffaker. But recently, there's been a surge in parking tickets handed out in the neighborhood.

Many residents like Huffaker believe cars totally blocking the sidewalk is one thing, but cars extending a few inches into the sidewalk is another.

"I'm very aware of pedestrian rights," Huffaker said. "If you look behind our car, I’ve made sure that there’s more than legal amount of pedestrian space. Nobody’s ever been impacted by us parking, except the city and they’re impacted because they get $80 every time we park there.”

Huffaker says he has reached out to his city council representative but has not received a response.

Laird Tucker, senior parking enforcement supervisor with the city of San Diego, told NBC 7 that "the department completely understands the situation these residents are in, and in talking to them, I understand the frustration that they have. It’s taking away a parking spot they relied on, but as a department, our hands are tied.”

California state law mandates that sidewalks need to be accessible for all to navigate, especially those with mobility issues or disabilities.

"It's California state law that anybody that parks onto a sidewalk is violation" Tucker said. "That is what the law says, and we are required to enforce it and possibly open ourselves up to lawsuits if we don’t enforce the parking laws, especially for ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) issues that are co-mingled with this violation.”

A few years ago, Tucker says he took a proactive step, going door to door in the neighborhood to educate residents that if they continued to park on the sidewalk, they'd be risking a citation. He attributes the recent rise in parking tickets in the neighborhood to the city's "Get It Done" app.

"Since the city has introduced the Get It Done app, people have the ability to report vehicles parked illegally more frequently," Tucker said. "We’ve noticed over 200 calls in this specific neighborhood in last couple years about sidewalks being blocked in the neighborhood.”

Huffaker, who has a petition that residents can sign to hopefully generate action from the city, also has a best case solution: for the city to move the sidewalk 3 feet closer to the curb.

In the meantime, it's an old building issue in a new age world. Huffaker understands all this, but until there's a solution, there will be continued frustration from this longtime resident.

"You have a house that has a driveway. You need to be able to park in it," Huffaker said.