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It's a pet peeve of many a Houston homeowner: Neighbors who park their car -- or cars -- in their yard.

Lawyers working for Houston's city government will brief councilmembers this week on an idea that's bound to spark some controversy: Should Houstonians be forbidden from parking cars in their yards?

For some, it's an issue of tackiness. For others -- it's all about personal freedom.

"We have not been able to keep up with it, really," Doris Hinson, a civic club leader in a neighborhood that has more than its share of cars parked in yards.

"We can have up to seven, eight, nine cars in one yard. And what we're experiencing when we see this is definitely a rise in crime," said Hinson.

Here in Houston, unless your neigborhood has deed restrictions against it, using your front lawn as a parking lot is perfectly legal.

KHOU

Cars parked in the yard are a common sight in some Houston neighborhoods.

Down at Houston City Hall, they've been talking for months now about outlawing parking cars in your yard. But the legal question has been, "How can a city government do that, in a city without zoning?"

"It is very hard to make it legal, to pass it," said Houston Councilmember Toni Lawrence. "San Antonio has no parking in yards and that's what I was hoping to pattern our ordinance after. But again, they're doing it as a zoning issue."

But some people question whether Houston should ban cars from yards.

"I've got some homes in my district that weren't developed with a lot of forethought as to how families would grow into the future," said Councilmember Adrian Garcia. "As a result, I've got some homes that don't even have a driveway, some that have enough of a driveway for one car."

Stay tuned.