Harford County residents who park in front of mailboxes and block their neighbors from receiving mail could soon be breaking a county law.
Councilman Dick Slutzky introduced legislation of Tuesday's council session that will forbid anyone from parking within 10 feet of a mailbox anywhere in the county between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, without the owner's consent.
Slutzky said previous council members have tried to pass the bill before, notably the late Roni Chenowith, but there was not enough impetus to actually make the parking faux pas illegal.
"It sort of got delayed…None of us really wanted to have to do anything about this," Slutzky explained Wednesday. "As the county grows and the population grows, it's become more of a problem."
Slutzky said the issue has mostly come up in more affluent communities where people have a lot of cars and may be parking in front of mailboxes. He said he has seen it in his own community, in Aberdeen.
"It's unfortunate that we even have to consider such a thing but it's been a real problem in some areas of the county associated with expansion of the development envelope," he said. "We would hope that in most cases this is something you could resolve with your neighbors – 'please don't let your family or friends park in front of the mailboxes' – but it became a growing concern."
Slutzky said the possibility of not getting mail presents a real hardship for some people.
"It's unfortunate because some people have to drive several miles to get to their post office," he said.
At first, council members tried to resolve the issue through the Postal Service, to no avail, Slutzky said.
"We decided that we would ask the post office how to handle that. They said there's nothing they could do because they didn't have an ordinance," he said. "Their policy is that if they are in their truck, not to leave their vehicle for the mail."
Slutzky said there was no language in the bill yet regarding enforcement, so it remains to be seen what kind of punishment violators would actually face.
Nevertheless, he said it is a good ordinance that he expected the rest of the council to support because it is clearly a problem for county residents.
"It's complaint-driven, so it's not like it's the sheriff's office or some other office, that we are out looking for it," he said of the problem.