Homeowners in areas where used-car sellers rent out driveways to push their products have been clamoring for a change, according to the Arizona Republic, which adds the city's government is preparing to update neighborhood zoning rules to combat the practice.
Maryvale resident Dwight Amery said the multiple cars being sold at a given time are a form of urban blight, according to the Republic.
"No one guy that lives in a house on a busy street is going to have four different trucks for sale four weeks in a row. This [is] where the pros are taking advantage of the system, and it just degrades the area," Amery told the newspaper.
A city zoning official, Liz DeMichael, told the paper new rules would be needed to clarify the legality of selling used vehicles – including provisions which would make clear that homeowners can only sell their own property from their homes, not property belonging to other people.
One of the main problems with this type of high-volume private sale is the traffic congestion caused by drivers slowing or stopping to check out the vehicles on offer, which can even lead to accidents and consequent higher car insurance rates, experts say.
According to the Republic, the new rules would prohibit several practices residents say lead to snarled traffic and degraded quality of life, including bans on selling more than two vehicles each year from the same address or selling cars from a vacant lot. The new laws would also impose requirements that only one vehicle be sold at a time and that each must be registered at the address from which it is sold.