Request By:
Ms. Amy Green, President
Yorktowne Mobile Home Park
50 Constitution Drive
Winchester, Kentucky 40391
Opinion
Opinion By: Chris Gorman, Attorney General; Gerard R. Gerhard, Assistant Attorney General
Re: Whether General Traffic Laws May be Enforced on Streets in Mobile Home Park. AGO Corr. No. 92-(o)-55.
By letter of January 8, 1992, the board of directors of the Yorktowne Mobile Home Park asked, in substance, whether law enforcement officers could enforce traffic laws (e.g. posted speed limits, reckless driving) on streets within the Yorktowne Mobile Home Park in Clark County. Apparently the streets are privately maintained and are located on privately owned property. The letter explains that 185 homes are in the complex (presumably the Yorktowne Mobile Home Park).
In our view, if the roadways of the Yorktowne Mobile Home Park, although privately maintained, are offered for public use so as to be considered public roads and thus "highways" within the meaning of KRS 189.010(3), law enforcement officers may enforce traffic laws upon them. Discussion follows.
General provisions regarding speed limits are found in Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) 189.390. The limits provided for in that section are imposed upon an operator of a vehicle "upon a highway. " "Highway" is defined in KRS 189.010(3) in the following terms:
'Highway' means any public road, street, avenue, alley or boulevard, bridge, viaduct, or trestle and the approaches to them and includes offstreet parking facilities offered for public use, whether publicly or privately owned , except for-hire parking facilities listed in KRS 189.700.
(Emphasis added.)
If the roadways within the Yorktowne Mobile Home Park are offered for public use so as to be considered "public" roads (although privately owned or maintained), or if such roadways constitute off-street parking facilities offered for public use, other than those for hire, they would be within the definition of "highway" as used in KRS 189.010(3). Accordingly, law enforcement officers could properly issue citations for speeding violations (KRS 189.390), or reckless driving violations (KRS 189.290), occurring upon such roadways. See Opinion of the Attorney General (OAG) 75-36, 75-115, and 76-135 (copies enclosed).