City Puts End To Manâ€™s Private PGA Parking Lot

Friday, August 10th 2007, 5:00 pm

By: News On 6

Some Tulsa homeowners hoping to cash in on the PGA are coming up short. The city moved to shut down a private parking lot Friday morning because it was in a neighborhood. The News On 6â€™s Emory Bryan reports the City of Tulsa has gone to great lengths to make sure people don't park cars on the streets around Southern Hills, but Friday they responded to the first complaint about cars parked in a yard.

Ronnie Herron hoped to make some money parking cars in his grandparentâ€™s yard near 61st and Harvard. He had plenty of room, a great location, and a big sign, the problem was he didn't have permission from the city, even though he says a police officer told him it would be fine.

"He advised me that the City of Tulsa wasn't going to be enforcing the code about parking on the grass, never had and wasn't going to be this time," car parker Ronnie Herron said.

He made $700 Thursday, but Friday morning the city shut him down because he was running a business in a neighborhood.

"Made a good amount of money yesterday fortunately that we can use, and today we got a little bit and we're done," Herron said.

Even though the city came in and shut down Herron it's obvious that the same thing is happening in the neighborhood around him, just on a smaller scale. The difference is no one complained about the others. The city inspectors don't generally look for code violations like cars parked on grass or even people charging for parking, but when someone complains they check it out.

"I'm sure we haven't seen or heard of all, but we've tried to encourage everybody's voluntary compliance," City of Tulsa inspector Kevin Cox said.

Last month, the city sent letters to homeowners around Southern Hills reminding them the "codes restricting the parking of cars in yards will be enforced." City inspectors told Herron to take down his sign and stop parking cars. He did, but he's not happy that his chance to make something off the PGA was shut down by a single complaint.

Herron was hoping to raise some money for the baseball team he coaches, but that's over now.

The city said the complaint against Herron was the only one they've had about people running their own parking lots around the PGA.

For more on the 89th PGA Championship, including where to park click here.

Watch the video: City Shutsdown Man Trying To Cash In On PGA Championship