I'd prefer email, you want some degree of "cya"-with email, you have some degree of proof.
Here's the thing-I think if you call them and ask them to email you the relevant codes, you'll never hear back from them.
You have to deal with the following municipalities:
State
County
City
And then-the neighborhood HOA. Like the above posters said, this is where you'll have the most issues.
As an experiment, I decided to attempt to research an in-town Atlanta neighborhood. I lived in Brookhaven when I was a kid and we moved to the suburbs later. I'd like to live in-town again and I love Brookhaven (very good social scene, great walkability, etc.
So first I googled "Brookhaven, Ga" and their website was the first hit. Went to the site and looked for their city code. Found their Code of Ordinances:
http://www.brookhavenga.gov/codes.html
Went and looked at Chapters 7 & 17 and found nothing about vehicles (well, chapter 17 has all sorts of regulations about speed limits, but nothing about what you're allowed to have).
So Brookhaven was a bust. I find it impossible to believe that Brookhaven, an in-town Atlanta neighborhood doesn't have some regulations regarding vehicles (let's face it-large 3 axle ones like ours). So at this point, if it were me, I'd either be emailing or visiting their city hall or I'd be engaging my attorney to find out. The last thing you want is to buy a house and find out you can't have a deuce there.
Them I went to the County's site. Brookhaven is in DeKalb County, so I checked out their site:
http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/ I used their in-site google search (like what SS has) and looked for "vehicle oordinances". About halfway down I found "
http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/boc/ljhonson/projects/propertymaintenanceflyer.doc". Within this, I found:
Inoperable Vehicles
No owner or occupant of any premises shall park any inoperable vehicle or permit any other person to park any inoperable vehicle on premises for more than seventy-two (72) hours, unless the inoperable vehicle is parked in an enclosed structure.
Unregistered and Unlicensed Motor Vehicles
Any vehicle that is unregistered or has an expired registration or does not have a lawful license plate or lawful temporary tag, which plate or tag is currently registered to the vehicle displayed thereon. A court summon will be issued upon the first inspection no warning notice will be given.
PARKING ON THE GRASS is prohibited.
And here's the biggie:
COMMERCIAL VEHICLES are restricted in residential zones. Business vehicles such as passenger cars, pick-ups, or ordinary passenger vans must be parked in a carport, or to the side or rear of the house. Other commercial vehicles (e.g. Semi tractors, panel vans, school buses, and cargo vans) may not be kept in a residential zone.
So, by reading this, you'd think DeKalb County would allow a deuce, right? Since you aren't using it for commerce, it isn't commercial. But they didn't think so. They engaged SS member in a ridiculous ride through the court system:
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?39460-DeKalb-County-vs-Ryan-Gill-VICTORY!
Although the law is seemingly clear, you'll be having an unpleasant day when some code officer decides your deuce is commercial, regardless of it's usage. You'll be on the hook to hire an attorney and miss who knows how much work to prove that the law says what you want it to (or you think it) say.
And that's to say nothing of the town or neighborhood HOA of where you end up. Since I don't have a particular neighborhood in mind, I couldn't really find one to see if they had a website with rules.
In short, I don't think there's a good way to find out if a particular area is "MV friendly". But you'd better do a good job and if it were me, I'd have my attorney doing it.
