Carolina Journal’s Sara Burrows writes today about the brewing fight in Raleigh over the city’s proposed amendment to a zoning ordinance that would force Raleigh property owners to build driveways. It’s a classic property-rights case. Supporters don’t want people to be able to park cars on dirt, grass, or loose gravel, and they want the city to enshrine their opinion in an ordinance.

The ordinance would give all owners of single-family home one year to construct driveways meeting the following standards:

• Driveways must be made of non-erodible surfaces of concrete or crushed stone, four inches deep, with defined permanent borders.

• They must be 12 feet wide and include a parking pad covering 425 square feet or 40 percent of the front yard, whichever is greater.

• Parking pads must be surrounded with vegetative screening.

“Homeowners who cannot afford to retrofit driveways or parking areas to the new construction standards would be restricted to single-file parking in front of the residence’s driveway curb cut,” the city’s website states.