Parking seems to be one of the biggest concerns for owners living in an association. Can I park on the street or can I not? If you live in an association where parking is ample you should feel pretty lucky. There are many HOA’s in the Las Vegas Valley that not only have “No Parking” rules where parking is restricted during certain times of the day or night, but they may also have no parking at all due to all of the red curbs in their community, and what’s worse is some homes were built with little to no driveway space for vehicle parking. If you happen to be one of the owners who purchased a home in a community with red curbs lining the streets, I’ve done a little bit of research on the reason behind them and have provided you with the regulations set by Clark County.
Red curbs are a result of fire safety codes!
In order for a fire truck to get through a residential street, they must have a minimum width of 24 feet along with a minimum of 28 feet for an inside turning radius and 52 feet minimum for an outside turning radius. These minimum width requirements come into play with red curbs and are determined as follows:
- Any street with the minimum of 24 feet clearance, but have a street with less than 32 feet in width must paint the curbs red on both sides of the street and have “no parking/fire lane” signs.
- Any street with a minimum of 32 feet wide, but have less than 40 feet of clearance must paint the curbs on only one side of the street and have “no parking/fire lane” signs.
- For any street that is 40 feet wide or more is not required to mark curbs or post signs.
- Measuring: When a measurement is given from back of curb to back of curb, the measurement must be a minimum of one foot greater than the actual clearance width requirement. For example, if a street measuring 33 feet wide from the back of the curb to back of the curb on the opposite side of the street, the actual clearance width is 32 feet.
**TIP** A standard residential curb is typically 6 inches in width. Best way to measure in my opinion is from the outside edge of the curb where the curb meets the gutter instead of the inside edge, where the curb meets the sidewalk or property line.
Fire hydrants must also be marked with red curbs and no parking signs!
- Fire hydrants come with a minimum of 13 feet of clearance on either side of it. With that, curbs must be painted red and properly marked “no parking”. The only exception for red curb is if a portion of that 13 feet includes a driveway entrance to a residential home … you do not have to paint the small 1 inch curb that is considered the entrance to a private driveway.
- A fire hydrant is required within 300 – 600 feet of a residential property
- Fire hydrants must be at least 6 feet away from any driveway, power pole or light pole.
- Blue reflective markers must be placed in the middle of the street, directly across from each fire hydrant. This provides street visibility for emergency vehicle drivers when the hydrant itself is not clearly visible.
Did you know?
- Yellow hydrants are “public” fire hydrants maintained by the City or Township and red hydrants are “private” fire hydrants maintained by the HOA or some other private owner.
- Parking is always prohibited in a “hammerhead” or flat end type of cul-de-sac for the first 65 feet but is normally allowed in the round-end type.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact a member of the Shelter Management Group (SMG) team, we would be happy to help! Contact us at 702-818-4780 or info @ smghoa.com
Article Authored By: Jamie Collins, Supervising CAM, CMCA, AMS agent at Shelter Management Group (SMG)