Each fall, thousands of fans drive to Charlottesville to cheer on the Cavalier football team and soak up the warm fall weather.
But fans often run into a problem that is all too familiar to University students-the lack of places near the stadium to park.
And last year, in the midst of all this football bliss, the parking problem escalated to a new level, causing students and fans to commit what is called a "zoning violation."
Zealous students, looking to make some money, charged Cavalier fans to park their cars in their yards in the neighborhoods surrounding the stadium.
Not only is this against city regulations and increases traffic congestion in residential areas, but it "looks terrible and devalues the neighborhoods," Charlottesville Planning Manager Ron Higgins said.
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Despite warning from city officials, Zoning Administrator for Charlottesville Heidi Misslbeck said that last year, her administration only sent out citations to six to 12 houses, warning them of the zoning violation they were committing.
Misslbeck said the violators were given 30 days to bring the house into compliance, meaning remove the cars from their yards and not charging cars to park in their yards again.
Although there were between six and 12 violations notices sent out, none of the people were taken to court.
"We talked to property owners and found out we didn't have enough evidence to bring them to court," she said.
If brought to court and charged, the violation carries a maximum possible fine of $1000 per violation, Misslbeck said.
City officials are hoping that this year, because of increased efforts to stop the violations, and the increase in parking spaces at the stadium, there will not be a big problem with students violating the zoning law.
"We are intending to prevent this," Misslbeck said.
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Misslbeck said the renovations of Scott Stadium included a new parking garage with 600 spaces, which increased the number of spaces by 250 and will ease some of the parking problems.
In addition, the city will provide free parking and transportation from the Downtown Mall parking garage and fans also can park in the University Hall parking lot. Fans lucky enough to get to Charlottesville early also can park on the nearby streets that do not require parking permits.
Misslbeck said this fall more city officials will be sweeping the neighborhoods surrounding the stadium to locate people committing the zoning violation. She added that Charlottesville policemen will be able to ticket violators immediately.
Misslbeck said information about where fans can legally park was included in the envelopes that the football tickets were sent out in.
Michael Thomas, associate director of athletics, said that students and the general public can legally park their cars with $18 season pass parking permits in the lots around the stadium, the downtown parking garage and the University Health System parking garage. Other options at a free, first-come, first-served basis include the University Hall parking lots, the Fontaine Research Park lots, and other lots on North Grounds.
Higgins said he hopes that information on this zoning violation eventually be included in student's registration materials.
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