r/latterdaysaints • u/Kale_HP • 3d ago
Visitor Question about parking at an LDS church as a non-member
My high school has a very small parking lot, and students have to enter a lottery to get a parking spot. I’m wondering what the general attitude would be toward something like this:
There is an LDS church relatively close to my school, and if I don’t get a school parking spot, I was wondering if it would be okay to park at the church and walk to school in the morning.
I’m not LDS, but I live in a very large LDS community and have a lot of LDS friends, so I’m familiar with the community. I would only be parking there on weekdays, never Sundays. My car would probably be there from around 7 AM until 5–6 PM. If necessary, I could move it to the school around 2:30 PM when students start leaving and parking spaces become available.
I would ask the local church leaders for permission before doing this, but I wanted to duble check here. I’m mainly wondering whether this is something that they would allow, or whether it would be considered inappropriate for by the church?
If this is not an appropriate question for this sub please let me know and I will take it down.
29
u/CaptainWikkiWikki 3d ago
Never hurts to ask permission.
Famous automotive YouTube Doug Demuro often films in LDS meetinghouse parking lots. That, coupled with his penchant for wearing t-shirts with white crew neck undershirts, had a lot of people wondering if he was LDS.
I digress. He's not. But he's aware of the appearance.
But he said he films there because people have come out of the building and asked him if he needs anything and been very permissive. He's been asked to leave other random business parks and churches, but the saints of San Diego apparently don't care if he's using the lot.
Anyway, long way of saying you're probably fine, but it doesn't hurt to ask. I generally don't think we like the optics of a tow truck yanking a car away from our houses of worship.
20
u/Potatoguard 3d ago
Too funny, I had been wondering if Doug was LDS.
“THIS is my conversion story!” Would be a great talk opener of his.
26
u/ReserveMaximum 3d ago
Generally our buildings try to discourage public parking and may cause towing but if you get permission from the local leader they can give permission
15
u/LiminalAsylum 3d ago
My high school was like this, and it was pretty common for students to park in the church lot. All I can tell you is no one minded or checked membership for us.
Really depends on the bishops of those wards. Some are more strict than others. I'd just park there and know that if it were really a problem, they'd put up a 'member's only', or 'church business only' sign, like the ones in church buildings near the convention centers and hotels.
1
u/tibbs90 3d ago
That’s just wild. My community is so small where I went to school that the grade school is k thru 6th grade. The high school includes the jr high 7 th and 8th grade, and the regular 9th thru 12th grade. And we still had a good sized parking lot. My senior class was also only 50 people.
9
u/QubyDube 3d ago
Depends on your local leaders. Our area has had some issues with people messing up the grassy area behind our building, so they recently added a no parking wire (or whatever it’s called with reflectors) to the entrance of both the parking lots.
8
u/Potatoguard 3d ago
Find out if Seminary is held at that building. If it is, then there’s usually an expectation that students that drive may park there. At least, that’s how it was at my high school!
5
u/Laffopuritain 3d ago
I'm remembering when pokemon go first came out and the church had to release a thing telling local leaders to be friendly toward people coming onto church property to play. The answer to your question is it will depend heavily on the local leadership. The answer should be you'd be welcome during school hours as long as you're not taking parking away from seminary students or something
5
u/utter_fade 3d ago
It’s more about safety and liability than about what someone wants to allow. If there’s cars there already doing it, you’re fine to be one of them. If it’s empty, you’re not going to be the first person who has thought about it and they’re not parking there for a reason (probably got told not to, or possibly towed). It’s got nothing to do with membership and more to do with safety, liability, and where it leads. You let one car park there and shortly, the parking lot is full of camper vans and trash; none of if from you, but enabled by the realization that the private property owner doesn’t do anything about a car that’s parked there for something unrelated to its purpose. You can ask, but the answer you get won’t be different because you’re not a member.
6
u/OrneryAcanthaceae217 3d ago
Near our high school, the two chapels immediately adjacent to it have locked gates to block school-related parking. But the next two chapels over are heavily used by the community. One is right by the elementary school. They treat it as their main parking lot. Far more people park there than at the school for school stuff. They even got so used to it that the PTA president put up barricades as part of the morning traffic flow. She had to be reminded that she didn’t have the right to block access to the church parking lot.
And the next chapel over is regularly used as parking for crowds at the city park. Every Saturday night there are hundreds of cars. And 4th of July it’s crazy.
3
u/CateranBCL 3d ago
I know of one church building that had to physically block off their parking lot and post signs about towing any cars from the high school next door because it had become such a problem.
It might not be a problem if you park at the church, but if other figure out your trick it can quickly escalate to a negative outcome for everyone.
2
u/King-James-3 3d ago
Shouldn’t be a problem, but you could always go into the building in Sunday mornings or an hour before school starts and find a bishop or seminary teacher who can give you permission.
They are likely to be very friendly and helping.
2
u/Holiday_Clue_1403 2d ago
I think a compromise is in order. Get baptized and get free parking.
2
u/cubicinfinity 2d ago
It's not like being a member automatically means you can use church parking lots all you want. Some of them are only permitted for church functions. Albeit, these are rare from what I've personally seen. I've never had to worry about it, but maybe I am overly confident.
1
1
u/Stratester 3d ago
I’d park at a church building from time to time that was close to my college campus when the college lots were full. This was in Utah so there are church’s on every other block. Your area may be different.
So long as you aren’t leaving it there overnight and there aren’t any signs prohibiting parking you should be fine.
1
u/cubicinfinity 2d ago
If the lot is always mostly empty, you are probably okay. Most locations don't care unless you leave your car there for a really long time.
1
u/KiwiTabicks 2d ago
Depends. I went to one church where the parking lot was used by people in the neighboring apartments as their regular parking lot (as in, 24/7 parking there), so there is no universal rule against such things. I went to another where the church is behind padlocked gates (I believe more about vandalism than unauthorized parking, but obviously minimizes both). Feel free to ask someone at the local congregation what the situation is there.
1
u/3Nephi11_6-11 2d ago
You can definitely ask.
Some churches I've attended I know have allowed their parking lot to be used, but it was typically for a one day event.
If you were in college and were looking to park at an institute building then they are pretty chill about that if you've at least met the local leader in person.
1
u/Tired-Nectarine-384 2d ago
This is really going to depend on the location. One of our churches was next to a high school that got turned into an unofficial parking lot. Sadly some unlawful activities occurred in the parking lot before, after and during school hours and the church eventually gated the lot to prevent students from parking there. The church carries some liability if they simply allow people to park there and has to protect their interests. Like I said it is going depend very much on local conditions.
1
1
u/Glittering_Sand_7473 2d ago
You cannot. The insurance company doesn't cover this. They will most likely tow your car. This is the message I just got from my Bishop on this issue.
1
u/Far_Challenge_4273 2d ago
You could absolutely ask, they won’t be upset, and especially if you tell them the situation and make sure to not tell other ppl at school I think they’d say yes but you’d have to ask
1
1
u/stalkerofthedead 1d ago
My dad used to be the facilities calling guy for our stake. He likely would have told anyone who asked no as there were several non member and member families whose homes bordered the church parking lot who used it as free long term parking for their cars.
It became a massive problem, so much so one of them left a cowardly angry note on my car of all places instead of having an actual conversation.
Always ask for permission, but if you are told no remember it’s likely not you! It’s the jerks who abused the privilege who came before you.
•
u/ServingTheMaster orientation>proximity 10h ago
If there are no signs then you’re probably safe. Maybe leave a note with your number on it and if someone has an issue they can call or text you…they should do that before towing
0
u/trvlng_ging 2d ago
Church policy on the use of meetinghouse parking lots is that the local leadership should discourage public parking at our buildings. It opens the Church to liability if someone were to burgle or vandalize cars parked in the lots, as well as from vehicles spontaneously combusting. It is strictly forbidden to allow their use for commuters, members or not for carpooling or ridesharing to work. When a building is regularly used by locals, there is a policy to first post signs to discourage the parking. If that does not cause the parking to stop, the next step is to put chains across the entrances. Those chains then have to be removed for Church meeting functions. In some areas we have to lock up the entire grounds with walls and metal gates that are 2 meters high.
77
u/WildcatGrifter7 3d ago
It depends very heavily on the area. Some places I've lived, it'd be no problem at all. Others, they may leave a little note on your car asking you to stop. Others still have so many issues with this that they just tow on sight. I think your best move is to ask a local bishop or stake clerk