Arapahoe County lawmakers unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday that more strictly regulates parking on county roads after a rash of illegally parked vehicles, stored vehicles blocking rights-of-way and other issues.

The ordinance comes in response to community concerns about safety, and dozens of county residents attended Tuesday’s meeting to urge commissioners to approve the ordinance.

In late September, commissioners voted to move the ordinance to public hearing Tuesday, after which they all voted to approve it. Under the approved ordinance, parking on Arapahoe County Highways and Roads and on County owned property is regulated and there will be a $150 fine for violating the regulations, according to commission documents.

The ordinance goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

Documents state that it is in the “best interests” of public safety to authorize the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office to enforce parking restrictions.

Parking violations in unincorporated Arapahoe County have become a problem, according to commission documents. Community members are having issues with illegally parked vehicles, stored vehicles blocking public rights of way and a variety of other parking problems.

Problems have cropped up in the Dayton Triangle neighborhood, north of Cherry Creek State Park — as just one example.

Don Kennedy, a county resident, has safety concerns for driving visibility due to trailers parked on his street, he said. Down the street from his house is the city of Aurora boundary, and beyond it “they enforce parking restrictions,” he said, but in his neighborhood, there are trailers parked everywhere.

It becomes a safety issue constantly when he and his neighbors are pulling out of their driveways and can’t see oncoming traffic, he said.

Melissa Steiner, another county resident, also expressed her support for the ordinance, saying parking around her house is made difficult by parked trailers and cars that haven’t been moved “in five years.”

Jesse White said he supports the ordinance, but hopes it’s not “too little, too late.”

“These neighborhoods have turned into basically salvage yards, used car operations,” he said. “It has destroyed property values, I’m not going to be too light about that.”

The security of the area has been “in question for many, many years,” he said.

Commissioner Carrie Warren-Gully gave kudos to commissioner Leslie Summey, saying Summey put in a lot of work on the ordinance listening to resident concerns and working with staff to put it together.

In the September meeting, Summey told residents that she “felt their pain” when it came to safety and other issues caused by parking violations.

“Just know that, as you are counting cars, so am I,” she said at the earlier meeting.

The full resolution can be found on Arapahoe County’s website.