b'CORPUS CHRISTIPARKING IN FRONT YARDS NOW PROHIBITED IN CORPUS CHRISTIIn August, the City of Corpus Christi joined the seven larger cities in Texas, alongone property at a time as large, once-fashionable homes, many built on the with dozens of smaller ones, in passing an ordinance prohibiting the parking offormer golf course, have been purchased and converted into pseudo frat houses vehicles in front yards. Exemptions include homes on streets of less than 28 feetoccupied by up to ten college students at a time. With the crowds of student in width and homes that do not have a driveway, but the vast majority of resi- residents and weekend Animal House revelers now in the once-sleepy Pharaoh dents in the city will have to comply or face a $500 fine. In a city where hundredsValley neighborhood has come the frequent parking of vehicles in front yards.of residential blocks, especially those in older precincts on the north and westFor a community of about 400 single-family homeowners that have been in a sides, have as common practice parking in front yards, the new law came as atooth-and-nail fight for the survival, and ultimate improvement of their neigh-shock and, for some, a new bone of contention with City Hall. borhood, news of the front yard parking ban was both a welcome surprise and On the south side, however, and along and near the Ocean Drive / Ennis Joslina much-desired tool in the battle against the blighting of the subdivision. A corridor, parking in front yards has been seen as a trashy and low-brow practiceseven-year legal battle concluded last year after a lawsuit blocking the sale of that is one of the first signs of a neighborhood in decline. Ground Zero for thisthe Pharaoh Valley Golf Course was settled, and the 100+ acre property was pur-concern was undoubtedly the Pharaoh Valley Subdivision, which is locatedchased by Barisi Village LLC for the purpose of developing a mixed-use commu-along Ennis Joslin Road near Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and that was once con- nity that will restore value to the existing subdivision.sidered one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in the Coastal Bend. The southeast corner of the city along Corpus Christi Bay, south of Airline Road In the fifteen years since the Pharaoh Valley Country Club and its 18-holeand down to the Ocean Drive / Ennis Joslin intersection and inland to McArdle championship golf course went out of business, the subdivision has declinedRoad, home to Texas A&M Corpus Christi and its 13,000 students, is one of the 26 THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'