Members of the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a parking ordinance for the county, which specifies rules, violations and enforcement pertaining to public parking places, to parking places owned by Buckingham County and parking designated for those with disabilities.

The motion received votes of approval from five members of the board of supervisors, with District Four Supervisor Morgan Dunnavant voting in opposition and District Seven Supervisor Danny Allen absent. No members of the public spoke during the hearing.

Dunnavant suggested that enforcement for private properties and businesses with parking for the benefit of the business should be complaint-driven rather than uniformly enforced, similar to the public and county-owned properties.

For public parking areas, the ordinances cites that violations include parking within

15 feet in either direction of a fire hydrant or the entrance to a fire station; within any designated fire lane established and designated or marked in a public or private parking lot or travel lane open to the public; at any place so as to block any fire department access to a highway and within 15 feet of the entrance to a building housing rescue squad equipment or ambulances, provided such buildings are plainly designated.

County-owned properties include the county administration building, the Gene Dixon Park, the future library and the courthouse.

For county-owned properties, no parking is permitted except in specifically marked and designated areas. Parking in those areas are limited to hours during which the County-owned facility is open for use and to persons having business within the County owned facilities, according to the ordinance.

In addition, no parking is permitted at any time in reserved spaces except for designated vehicles, designated by signage.

According to the ordinance, parking spaces are marked off by standard paint striping and vehicles must be parked within those lines. Where spaces are not marked off, drivers would park perpendicular to the road in such a manner as to use no more than one space.

For parking areas designated for those with disabilities, according to the ordinance, it is unlawful to park a motor vehicle in a parking space in public or privately owned parking areas open to the public reserved for those with disabilities and identified by an above-grade sign.

Exceptions to this section of the ordinance include any disabled person possessing and properly displaying disabled parking license plates, organizational removable windshield placards, permanent removable windshield placards, or temporary removable windshield placards issued by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles or any other person transporting a disabled person displaying a plate or placard. Other exceptions include disabled veteran or someone transporting a disabled veteran driving a motor vehicle or displaying special DV disabled parking license plates, and any disabled person whose motor vehicle is registered in any state other than Virginia and displays such other state’s license plate, placard, decal or other device, indicating that the vehicle is registered to, or is being used to transport, a disabled person.

Law enforcement can issue a citation or summons if violations of the section relating to handicapped parking is violated. Violations are punishable with a fine of $250, according to the ordinance.

Violations of each section of the parking ordinance, public, county-owned and disability parking can be enforced by law enforcement and can be punishable by a fine. To learn more about the ordinance, visit buckinghamcountyva.org and click on the Aug. 12 meeting board packet section on the website’s homepage.

The ordinance was initially discussed due to parking violations reported at the Food Lion location in the county.

Buckingham Sheriff William “Bill” Kidd said during the meeting that the sheriff’s office would procure the appropriate summons for the ordinance.