Disabled Parking Placards Start With Form VTR-214 and Your Doctor

The placard itself is a statewide program, but you pick it up locally, at the Tom Green County Tax Office at 113 W. Beauregard in San Angelo. The form is VTR-214, the Application for Persons with Disabilities Parking Placard, and for a first-time placard a doctor or other health-care provider has to complete the disability-statement section first. No signed statement, no placard, so that step happens before the trip downtown.

There are two kinds. The red one is temporary, six months or less, for a healing injury or short-term condition. The blue one is permanent for a lasting mobility issue and renews every four years. The form spells out what qualifies: wheelchair or cane use, a serious cardiac or lung condition, certain vision loss, and similar.

One thing that holds for everyone, placard or not: the placard is only valid when the person with the disability is the one using it or being driven. Lend it to a relative to grab a closer spot and the fine runs up to $1,250 plus community service. The tax office line is 325-659-6529 if you want to check what they'll need before you make the drive.