It happens: You drive over to your local beach or park for some outdoor fun, and in your search for parking you see what appears to be an open spot. But then, you see someone pluck down a chair and perch on it to save the parking spot.

Frustrating doesn’t begin to describe it.

One person had enough and took to Reddit on Thursday to post a photo of a man sitting on a chair and refusing to leave an open parking spot at the Embarcadero Marina Park.

A man is seen perched on a chair to save a parking spot. But is it illegal? Source: Reddit / MsThoughtful

The Reddit post — titled “Reserving beach parking spaces - Stop it please” and posted by a user named MsThoughtful — drew more than 250 comments and replies offering a wide range of reactions and ideas to resolve the matter.

One Reddit comment read: “Get your own chair and sit next to [them] and refuse to move when their friends come [in my opinion].”

Another suggested: “Ask them to move. Let them start causing a scene. Take a picture of them and the spot they're standing in. Let them know that you can't wait for their friends to park their car there and to have a great day.”

But is it illegal? That question was posed on the Reddit comments, and it’s a question that’s surfaced time and time again in San Diego — not just at public parks but also in residential neighborhoods.

Here are some of the scenarios we explored and whether there are rules prohibiting them:

Calling dibs on a metered parking spot by sitting on it

Parking spots at the Embarcadero Marina Park are metered, including the one in question in the Reddit post. Some users wondered whether the man sitting on the red chair had actually fed the meter and “called dibs.”

Sgt. Victor Banuelos, who responded to question on behalf of the Port of San Diego, said that people simply cannot feed the meter and save the spot on a day-to-day basis.

“Parking spaces are designated for vehicles,” Banuelos said. “If one is available, you can’t reserve it. It’s first come, first served. It’s a question of courtesy whether that person will move.”

He said the best the public can do in situations like this is to (kindly) ask the parking hog to move. If that doesn’t work, the public is encouraged to call the police, at which point it becomes a disturbance call. He added that, yes, people can reserve parking spaces for special events and that Port of San Diego staff will gladly mark them in advance.

San Diego police respond to concerns about saving parking. Nextdoor

Calling dibs on a parking spot with an orange cone

On the neighborhood app Nextdoor, a lieutenant with the San Diego Police Department responded to residential concerns about street parking spots being reserved with orange cones.

“In California and in the city of San Diego, street parking in residential areas is considered public parking, and cannot be reserved. As officers have time, they may remove orange cones illegally placed in the street. (They will be placed on the sidewalk), said Detective Lt. Natalie Stone in a 2016 post on Nextdoor.

Reserving parking spots with chairs or other objects

In this undated photo, a grill and a lawn chair tell motorists that these spaces, across the street from the beach, are reserved. The San Diego Union-Tribune

San Diego journalist Logan Jenkins tackled this issue in a column published in The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2017 when he wrote about the concept of “calling dibs” on public parking spaces.

At Bahia Point, a Union-Tribune colleague tells me, an RV recently was taking up four spaces, presumably as a way to hold spots for friends or family arriving later.

When my journalist friend rolled down his window and challenged the RV’s right to bogart three spots, the livid owner offered to “throw down” to settle the matter. With a couple of small kids in the back seat, my colleague passed on the invitation.

Jenkins reached out to a city spokesman at the time and got this:

To my surprise, “there is no law preventing people from placing objects in a parking stall,” a city spokesman replied.

“However, when park rangers come across this type of practice, they generally will ask the park patrons in the vicinity to remove their property from the stall. If they don’t get the voluntary compliance, the park rangers will move it off to the side or onto the park grounds.”

Calling dibs on an off-street parking spot

What if someone tries to call dibs on an off-street parking spot. Sgt. Michael Stirk cited the San Diego Municipal Code, chapter 11, to define off-street parking:

Off-street parking space means an unobstructed area not located in a public street or alley that is maintained exclusively for the parking of one passenger vehicle.

Stirk also cited the municipal code that forbids any obstruction of off-street parking:

§142.0510 General Parking Regulations

(a) Use of Required Parking Spaces. Required off-street parking spaces, parking areas, and transportation facilities shall be used only for parking operable vehicles of residents, employers, employees, customers, and visitors as appropriate to the allowed uses of the applicable zone.

(b) Parking Spaces to be Kept Clear. All off-street parking spaces and aisles shall be kept clear of any temporary or permanent obstructions.

In short, obstructing an off-street parking spot is not allowed. Whether police will act on it is another question.

“People can always call the police to report what they believe to be a violation of existing law,” Stirk said in an email. “The nature of the call will determine its priority category and the speed with which enforcement can respond to address the situation.”

Are we missing anything here?

Tell us whether you’ve seen this happen in other parts of San Diego or whether you find this annoying.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

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