It’s not uncommon for an area, particularly a city, to have certain parking restrictions – even outright bans on where a vehicle can be placed. Some cities restrict parking to only one side of the street, while not all houses can construct a driveway on the front yard to alleviate any parking problems. One city to institute a similar parking ban recently is Birmingham, Alabama. The city’s parking ban now prohibits parking on front yards. This new ordinance, called Section 11-8-9, gives even more restrictions on where a car can be parked on a property and under what. For the latter, this often is where restrictions on portable garages and carports come in.
In the case of Section 11-8-9, vehicles, such as cars, RVs, and motorcycles, can only be parked in the front yard only if the area is paved over or is a permitted driveway. No cars are allowed to be parked on grass. This front area may also have a carport or portable garage, according to the link above, as long as that structure is incorporated into the main house structure. Independent or portable structures, as implied by the previous statement, are not allowed in this area. But, they can be placed on other parts of the property, however. Section 11-8-9 specifies that this front area can be paved and cars can be parked there, as long as it leads to a proper parking area on the side or in the back of the home. A carport or portable garage can be placed in one of these locations.
While such parking bans aren’t exclusive to Alabama, this instance is an example of the various ordinances concerning carports that you need to take into account before purchasing such a structure. For example, if your area restricts placement on these structures in the front of your home, measure the area behind or to the side of the house for your structure.