Do you even remember what you post? You supported this!
No, that was an example to show that your assumptions about the social boundaries surrounding the concept of property ownership are not in any way universal. It was an example to show you not to assume that what other people might think about these kinds of things are or should be the same as what you think about them.
Yeah, sure, but it’s possible that my suggestion would have cost a lot less and still resulted in no real problems developing.
Agree with @Martin_Hyde about the posts and chains. Simple solution that stops anyone from parking there, even the ones that ignore the no parking signs because they will “only be parked there for a few minutes.”
You don’t want to end up like this story.
Same here. I would never look at a space like the one in squeegee’s photo and think, “Cool! Free parking!” I’d assume it belonged to somebody, and that somebody probably doesn’t want randos using it without permission.
I’m not asserting any moral superiority here; this is simply my stay-out-of-trouble mindset. I’ve probably passed on some perfectly good parking spots due to being overcautious.
I’m not trying to argue with you. I thought I made it clear upthread, but just in case, let me say it here:
I think you’re being entirely reasonable. I think your plan to put a polite note on the offender’s windshield and put up a sign in the space are exactly the right approach. I don’t think there’s anything at all wrong with you not wanting some random person to park on your property without your permission.
My only point was to raise the possibility that Pickup Truck Person may not even realize it’s your property, a possibility you seemed open to upthread.
But, just to get this out there, the photos you’ve shared of your “unincorporated area” look a lot like the “development” I live in (except the area I live in is pretty flat). The developer put in streets, drainage ditches, and a sign in a traffic island at one of the two entrances (the other entrance is completely unmarked). No streetlights, no maintenance crews, no clubhouse. Nothing beyond the streets and ditches.
When I moved in, there were a few cutouts on unsold lots that were the entrances to projected driveways. Those are all parts of private lots now as the development has sold out. There were also a couple of cutouts that look not all that different from your parking space which were the beginnings of roads that never got put in. One wound up part of one of the last lots sold and got plowed under when the lot owner landscaped. A couple of others wound up being connected to a different development that was put in a couple of years ago by a different developer.
Oh, and that sign on the traffic island? The developer never maintained it or the traffic island itself. There’s no HOA or any official community body. The folks living adjacent to it just take it upon themselves to cut the grass and occasionally clean the sign just because they don’t want the eyesore. And in the areas near where I live and work, there are a lot of easements and rights-of-way that are technically the responsibility of the city, state, county, or a utility, but it’s the adjacent homeowner who mows, weeds, etc., because they don’t want the eyesore.
There’s a nearby development that is huge, and has some built-up areas with streetlights, sidewalks, etc., and some much sparser areas with nothing more than streets with seemingly random cutouts and a couple of pioneering houses.
The point is, I still think it’s entirely possible Pickup Truck Person genuinely doesn’t realize that “cutout” is actually parking space on private property. Of course, it’s also entirely possible Pickup Truck Person is an entitled douche who parks where they want to and doesn’t care that they’re using what’s clearly someone else’s property. I’ve definitely run into that type myself on more than one occassion…
We could have done what you suggested if the guy had approached us before building the driveway, or if we had seen him driving on the grass prior to that. Nothing like that happened; he didn’t give us the slightest inkling of his needs or intentions, and he already had access to another street from his home. We simply showed up one day and found the gravel driveway he had built across our property.
I already responded about the utter ridiculousness of tolerating blocking someone’s driveway, and its effect on urgent situations, or its effect on just simply nothing more than some tired guy arriving home after a long day at work and a long drive and finding that he can’t get in to his own driveway on his own property. Or not being able to leave to pick up some takeout. Or not being able to leave in a hurry because his kid has just been in a car accident. This is OK with you? This is your idea of “simple human courtesies”?
You never answered @Dinsdale 's question about whether you’re a property owner yourself. I rather suspect you’re not.
I might park there, thinking it was more out of the way than on the street. But I’d stop if i found a sticky note telling to stop parking there. And I’d feel bad about disconcerting the owner.
But i don’t live in unincorporated land. Where i live, everything is owned, And that looks to me like it’s owned by the town.
Anyway, nothing wrong with your approach. A polite note, and a polite sign. And if the driver is polite, or doesn’t want to get towed, that should solve the problem.
I’d wager the likely explanation is that neighbors had a guest over and didn’t want Guest blocking their cars in their driveway. Guest didn’t want to park in the street because his precious vehicle might get hit out there in the semi-rural, no-streetlights jungle, so neighbors said, “Hey, just park in sqeegee’s area! He never uses it anyway!”
That seems more likely than some random person randomly deciding to park in a manicured area. Of course, the considerate thing would have been to ask first, but not everyone’s considerate. It might be worth mentioning to various neighbors in case they assume signs only apply to others.
And I apologize if I came off as combative. I was just trying to paint a clearer picture of the area. I quoted you but there were several others in the thread who thought it looked like obviously unowned land, and I disagree and tried to lay out why. But we can disagree. I think it’s possible as you do Pickup Truck Guy just didn’t realize what was what when he parked, hence the polite note and the planned signage.
I think one distinction in this neighborhood is that it is so hilly. Everything you see/drive on had to be graded to be flat-ish. That space was planned that way. On flat land you just plop down gravel. Here you call earth movers if you want usable anything. Anyway, I’ll let that argument go and thanks for discussing it with me, @gdave.
All good 
Here’s another thought – perhaps the guys with the pickup needed to park on flat-ish ground for some reason.
Perhaps they were loading or unloading something from the back of the pickup, and it would be easier if it wasn’t parked on a steep slope. That would certainly be the case if it was a large, heavy appliance.
This is consistent with someone picking up a large appliance for repair, and bringing it back again a few days later.
At least the first, the next two depending.
Opening someones hood to do this would almost certainly be a crime. IANAL.
I’ve been following this thread and this enquiring mind wants to know if Pickup Guy ever came back?
Did he ever come back? No, he never came back,
I’m with Martin Hyde’s suggestion of chaining off the entrance to the spot, given that the OP rarely uses it himself, but wants to keep it maintained because such spaces are a valuable asset in his area. Would solve the problem long-term with little inconvenience to the OP.
I’m late to the party, but one situation that I don’t think was touched upon was the pickup driver was visiting the house whose retaining wall and fence you can see in the photo and merely assumed that the space belonged to the people he was visiting. To me, anyway, that appears to be the closest property associated with the parking area.
The point being that even with a sign, someone else may make that same assumption. That is, people not trying to be rude or assholeish or anything, just thinking that is where they are supposed to park. Personally, if squeegee doesn’t regularly park there, the chain solution sounds like the best solution. Another solution is to merely paint his house number on the asphalt using that thick asphalt paint they have at the hardware store.