Jeebus, that article also says that the woman who wrote the ticket previously got in a dispute over a parked car and a recycling truck:
It sounds like someone who was granted a little bit of authority, tend to take it a wee bit too far.
An update from the Toledo Blade says:
So this seems to be the answer to the OP. The residents may have created an “additional gravel pad” to make turning around easier and these are not permitted.
Missed the edit.
For the sake of being a bit snarky, the newspaper made sure to point out: "The tickets used by Ms. Frederick misspelled the word violation as ‘violatation.’ " :: heh ::
Regarding the update, and the quote (I presume from the Commissioner), the ordinance in question doesn’t say anything to support that assertion. It simply makes it illegal to park a car on a side or front lot where it is not “paved.” If gravel is a type of paving, then unless there is some other law involved, these cars are parked correctly. The owner of the house may be in violation of the code for having and improperly extended driveway area, but that wouldn’t support ticketing the cars.
In other words, she’s full of shit. 
Because you could have gravel leading to a garage, or gravel leading to a paved parking area. 
Doh! I didn’t realize I’d trimmed the part where it establishes who was quoted. It was “Megan Robson, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s spokesman”. (I would have said “spokesperson” myself, but it’s not that big a deal I guess.)
Ah, thanks. 
Here in Minneapolis, we have a similar ordinance that forbids anyone from parking on their lawn (“any unpaved portion of the property”). It only applies if the cars are parked for more than 24 hours, I believe – so you can park on the lawn while washing your car, for example – the city even encourages that, to reduce water flowing into the gutters.
Some people have ‘paved’ parking spots off their alley with permeable pavers – basically concrete slabs with holes in them – so that water flows through into the ground and grass grows up through the holes. Some neighbors complained to the city about their long-term parking on this, claiming that it wasn’t a ‘paved’ area as intended by the ordinance.
There was some fuss about this for a while. I believe the City eventually decided that such areas were indeed allowable parking spots. But then ticketed the cars anyway, since they were ‘non-operable’, which violates a different city ordinance. So the junked cars had to be removed from those spots, which satisfied the neighbors.
The latest Blade article on the flap. Seems the mayorship is still full of bluster, the woman who wrote the tickets doesn’t understand that there are legal issues, and the city’s law director is of the opinion that they have some potential difficulties. Interesting to see if he weighs in only on procedural issues, or if he opines about the actual offense alleged to have been committed.
No where does the article say how the Commissioner is allowed to write a ticket for only $25 when the same infraction ticketed by the usual suspects would be $75.
People in suburbs are batshit insane when it comes to parking.
I’d explain further, but it absolutely baffles me, and quite frankly I have desire to know any more than I do.
Are, or were, you a native of Toledo? You seem pretty informed re the political culture there.
I lived in the suburbs and near-outlying area of Toledo from 1998 to last summer.