The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office is planning a crackdown on bad parking.

County commissioners voted Tuesday night to schedule a public hearing on July 11 that would repeal the county parking ordinance and replace it to allow deputies to enforce certain parking regulations in unincorporated areas like The Villages.

The crackdown won’t solve the persistent problem of parking over the lines as illustrated by many photos on Villlages-News.com, but the revised ordinance would give deputies the power to take action on illegal and unsafe parking conditions.

Prohibited parking would include double parking on the roadway side of another vehicle, parking on a sidewalk or within an intersection, parking on a crosswalk or obstructing traffic, parking on a bridge or in a tunnel or parking on a county road or street right-of-way.

Drivers would not be able to stand or park a vehicle except momentarily to pick up passengers in front of a driveway, within 15 feet of a fire hydrant or within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection.

The public hearing will be held during the next county board meeting at the Old Courthouse in Bushnell.

Sumter County is following in the footsteps of Lady Lake which is said to be enjoying great success with its newly enacted parking ordinance.

In other business, Sumter County became one of 18 Florida counties to receive accreditation for its emergency management program.

Karen Windon of the Emergency Management Accreditation Program and former deputy administrator of Manatee County, said achieving the status is not easy. She said accredited programs must meet 64 industry standards. Six people also spent a week reviewing the county’s program.