# Ordinance 2026-114 attaches parking permits to the dwelling unit

Ordinance 2026-114 would cap residential permits at two per dwelling unit as the county has it recorded. A two-car household goes from $50 a year to $135, and the rollout starts in two districts three months before the date printed in its own summary.

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Status | PROPOSED · AUG 19 AGENDA |
| Source | web:calderbay.example/ordinance-2026-114 |
| Workspace | Showcase |
| Tags | municipal-code, parking, permit-fees, phase-in, housing |

## What it says

**Permits stop being counted per driver and start being counted per dwelling.**

Ordinance 2026-114 amends Chapter 12, Article IV of the Calder Bay Municipal Code. It is 31 pages with four exhibits, and the part that changes what a household pays and how many cars it can keep on the street sits in the definitions and in Exhibit B.

Under the current code a residential parking permit belongs to a licensed driver. Three adults at one address get three permits, at $25 each, and nobody counts the address. This ordinance moves the entitlement to the address itself: two permits per household unit, a third only by exception and at $310, nothing after that.

The phrase doing the work is "household unit", and it is defined in the definitions section rather than in the part of the ordinance anyone reads. A household unit is a dwelling unit as the County Assessor has it recorded. Not a mailing address, not a lease, not a family. Whatever is on the roll.

| | Current code | Ordinance 2026-114 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who the permit attaches to | Each licensed driver residing at the address | The household unit, as recorded with the County Assessor |
| How many per address | No stated limit | Two, plus a third by exception |
| First permit, per year | $25.00 | $45.00 |
| Second permit, per year | $25.00 | $90.00 |
| Third permit, per year | $25.00 | $310.00, and only where no off-street space is of record |
| Visitor passes | Hangtags issued on request, no charge, no annual limit | Twelve single-day passes a year, $15.00 per book of four |
| Changing the fees later | Council resolution | Director, each July 1, indexed to the regional CPI |

**Diagram: One address with three adults and three cars, under the current code and under the ordinance.**

- NOW
  - 1412 Rowan Street (three adults, three cars) [neutral]
  - three licensed drivers (one permit each) [neutral]
  - $75 a year ($25 per vehicle) [neutral]
  - 1412 Rowan Street -> three licensed drivers
  - three licensed drivers -> $75 a year
- PROPOSED
  - 1412 Rowan Street (one household unit of record) [accent]
  - permits one and two ($45 and $90, total $135) [neutral]
  - third permit ($310, conditional) [bad]
  - any fourth vehicle (no permit issued) [bad]
  - 1412 Rowan Street -> permits one and two
  - 1412 Rowan Street --> third permit : if no off-street space
  - 1412 Rowan Street --> any fourth vehicle

## How it works

**The definition of household unit does more work than the cap does.**

The cap itself is one sentence in Section 3. What it means for any particular address is decided in Section 2, which never mentions parking, and in a table at the back that does not agree with the front.

Section 3 amends Section 12-405(b) so that the Department "shall not issue more than two residential permits per household unit". Easy to read, and on its own it decides nothing. Everything turns on how many household units the Department finds at a given address, and Section 2 answers that with the assessor's roll.

For most single-family houses the two numbers agree. They part company wherever the housing stock changed faster than the record: a garage converted to a studio, a house rented as an upstairs and a downstairs, an accessory unit permitted last spring and not yet reflected. Each of those is one household unit until the roll says otherwise, and everyone in it shares two permits.

```text
(k)  Household unit.  "Household unit" means a dwelling unit as defined in
Section 9-101 of this Code, identified by the separate parcel or unit
designation of record with the County Assessor as of the date of application,
without regard to the number of occupants, the number of licensed drivers, the
existence of separate leases, or the assignment of separate mailing addresses
to the property.
```

_The last clause is the operative one. Occupants, drivers, leases, and mailing addresses are all named and all excluded. Two roommates and a family of six get the same two permits, and a duplex that the county still lists as one house gets two permits for both halves._

1. **Thirty days after adoption: the fees change.** Section 9 sets the effective date. Exhibit B rates apply to every permit issued or renewed from that day. The two-permit limit is not in force yet, so a household renewing in this window pays the new prices under the old rules.
2. **October 1, 2026: Districts C and D.** The limit attaches at each household's next renewal in these two districts. Exhibit C lists them on their own line, ahead of everywhere else, and gives no reason.
3. **January 1, 2027: Districts A, B, and E.** Same rule, same trigger at renewal. This is also the date the summary on page 2 gives for the entire city.
4. **July 1, 2027: District F.** Held back in Exhibit C with the note "pending completion of the Harbor Street reconstruction". The ordinance does not say what happens to this date if the reconstruction runs long or finishes early.
5. **July 1, 2028: the fees begin moving on their own.** Section 8(c) lets the Director raise every amount in Exhibit B once a year by the change in the regional consumer price index. No further council action is required, and no ceiling is stated.

> **Two different start dates for the same rule**
>
> Page 2 says the limitation applies citywide beginning January 1, 2027. Exhibit C, which Section 6(b) incorporates by reference, puts District C and District D at October 1, 2026. For a household in either district that is a three month difference in when its third car loses its permit. Nothing in the 31 pages says which of the two governs, and Section 10 is a standard severability clause that does not address conflicts between the summary and the exhibits.

## Receipts

**Every number above traces to a line in the ordinance or one of its exhibits.**

Quoted from the ordinance text and the exhibits. Where the current code is compared, it is compared against the strike-through version printed in Section 4.

- **Claim.** The permit allowance attaches to the dwelling unit, not to the people living in it.
  - Evidence: "...without regard to the number of occupants, the number of licensed drivers, the existence of separate leases, or the assignment of separate mailing addresses to the property."
  - Where: Section 2, amending Section 12-402(k), page 4
- **Claim.** Two permits is the limit, and it is stated once.
  - Evidence: "The Department shall not issue more than two (2) residential permits per household unit, except as provided in subsection (c)."
  - Where: Section 3, amending Section 12-405(b), page 6
- **Claim.** A third permit costs $310 a year and can be refused outright.
  - Evidence: "Residential permit, third vehicle, per household unit, per annum ..... $310.00", carrying footnote 3: "Issued only where the household unit has no off-street parking space of record. Not prorated. Not transferable."
  - Where: Exhibit B, fee schedule, page 21
- **Claim.** A two-car household goes from $50 a year to $135.
  - Evidence: Exhibit B reads "first vehicle ..... $45.00" and "second vehicle ..... $90.00". The struck text of Section 12-407 reads "$25.00 per vehicle per annum".
  - Where: Exhibit B, page 21, and Section 4, page 8
- **Claim.** The summary and the phase-in table give different dates.
  - Evidence: Section 1(c): "the limitation shall apply citywide beginning January 1, 2027." Exhibit C shows District C and District D with an effective column reading "October 1, 2026".
  - Where: page 2, against Exhibit C, page 24
- **Claim.** Existing permits are not protected for a full year.
  - Evidence: "A permit validly issued before the applicable phase-in date shall remain in effect until its stated expiration and shall not be renewed except in conformity with Section 12-405(b)."
  - Where: Section 7(a), page 12
- **Claim.** Visitor parking becomes limited and paid.
  - Evidence: "No more than twelve (12) single-day visitor passes shall be issued to a household unit in any calendar year, at $15.00 per book of four (4)."
  - Where: Section 5, amending Section 12-409(a), page 10

## What it assumes

**The ordinance treats two vehicles as what a home holds, and never argues for the number.**

The cap is not derived anywhere in the 31 pages. Two is asserted in Section 1, built into Section 12-405(b), and then priced: the third car costs almost seven times the first, and the fourth does not exist.

The fee ladder is legible as a statement of belief. Forty-five dollars for the first car, ninety for the second, three hundred and ten for the third, and refusal after that. The document is taking as given that a dwelling generates roughly two vehicles, and that anything past two is an exception rather than an ordinary fact about how people live.

Where that assumption bites is not the two-car family. It is the address the county records as one unit and that functions as two or three: adult children who did not move out, a shift worker and a caregiver on different schedules, a house divided into rentals years before anyone updated the roll. The ordinance has no vocabulary for any of those. It has a parcel number.

- **Two vehicles per home is the baseline.** Page 2 attributes the figure to a 2025 registration study. The study is cited by title and is not attached, so the number arrives in the ordinance already decided.
- **The assessor's roll describes who lives there.** A household unit is whatever the county has recorded on the day of application. The ordinance provides no way for a resident to demonstrate that the address contains more households than the record shows.
- **A recorded space is a usable space.** The third permit is available only where there is "no off-street parking space of record". Whether a space of record is currently a garage full of storage, rented to someone else, or too narrow for the vehicle does not enter the test.
- **Price is the thing that moves a car.** The ladder assumes households respond to $310 by keeping fewer vehicles. The ordinance does not say what it expects to happen to a vehicle that loses its permit, and nothing in the text addresses registration at another address.

## Gaps

**The ordinance decides how many permits an address gets and not who settles an argument about it.**

These are things the text sets in motion and then leaves open. They are separate from the material that was missing from the packet, which is listed in the caveats.

Section 4 sets the fees and says nothing about where the money goes. No fund is named, there is no statement that permit revenue is limited to the cost of running the program, and no accounting is required. The current code does not contain one either.

Enforcement is untouched. Section 12-412, which covers citations and towing for parking without a valid permit, is not amended, so whatever happens today to a car parked without a permit is what happens to a third car after its renewal. That section is not reproduced in the packet.

- **No appeal from a household-unit determination** (medium)
  - The Department decides how many household units exist at an address. A duplex counted as one house, or a converted unit the roll has not caught up with, changes how many permits the residents can hold.
  - Mitigation: Section 12-405(d) says the Director's determination is final. The ordinance creates no reconsideration, no hearing, and no deadline for the Director to respond.
- **Units created after the record date** (medium)
  - The definition fixes the count as of the date of application. An accessory dwelling unit permitted in March but not yet on the assessor's roll shares the two permits belonging to the principal dwelling.
  - Mitigation: Unaddressed. Section 2 contains no provision for re-determination when the assessor's record changes during a permit year.
- **Caregiver hangtags left dangling** (low)
  - Section 12-409(f) of the current code issues a hangtag to a home health aide. Section 5 rewrites subsections (a) through (c) of that same section for visitor passes and does not mention (f).
  - Mitigation: The ordinance leaves 12-409(f) standing and does not say whether an aide's hangtag counts toward the household's two permits.

## What this brief could not check

- Section 9-101 supplies the definition of "dwelling unit" that the household-unit definition rests on. It is in a different chapter of the code and was not included with the agenda materials, so the outer boundary of the cap could not be checked.
- Exhibit A, the district boundary maps, is referenced in Section 6(a) and listed on the cover sheet, but pages 15 through 20 of the posted packet are blank. Which streets fall inside Districts C and D, the two on the earlier date, could not be determined.
- The 2025 vehicle registration study cited on page 2 as the basis for the two-permit figure is not in the packet and was not read.
- This brief was written by hand as a design fixture. It is modelled on real work, but no model read a diff to produce it, and its claims should not be relied on.