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My neighbor and I have about 2 feet between our driveways:

Townhouses with two neighboring concrete driveways

This picture is from a few years ago, the strip looks worse now.

Problems with the current setup:

  • The "grass" is permanently dead and there is a sprinkler in the strip that just waters concrete.

  • Because of the orientation of our garages, we have to drive very close to the driveway edge and sometimes end up in the strip (oops).

  • We live in a snow-heavy zone and end up snowblowing over the strip to maintain garage access, which is challenging on the uneven terrain. 10-20 feet per winter.

  • Our driveways are both 2-car width, but just barely. The people on the interior sides step out of their cars into the strip.

  • We are pretty sure the ugly utility box is cable/internet. Not sure if it can be buried for a fee, we are going to call and find out.

Our HOA is forcing us (right house in the picture) to replace our driveway because it is cracking. We thought this would be a good opportunity to address the strip.

Any ideas on what we should do? I don't love paving it all over with concrete because our 2 distinct driveways will merge into one super-driveway. But I'm not sure what other options we have.

Side question - you can see that half our driveway is much newer and in great condition (previous owners expanded it). It's probably around 5-8 years old. The other half is 20 years ago. Should we replace it all so it's consistent or just do the cracking half? We haven't gotten any bids yet, so I'm not sure what the price difference would be.

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    You have two organizations that have a bigger say about what you can do for those two feet, than you or us do. The utility probably has an easement there, and the HOA has rules/CCRs what can be there.
    – crip659
    Commented Aug 6 at 18:25
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    Your question is too broad, and we don't do design or subjective appearance questions here anyway (see the help center). Seems to me, though, that a simple river rock garden would be dandy. Please take the tour.
    – isherwood
    Commented Aug 6 at 18:33
  • @crip659 -- there are also local zoning/urban design landscaping requirements that can come into play
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Aug 7 at 2:28
  • @crip659 also, it depends where the property line is! If it's at the edge of the neighbor's driveway, PL may not be a problem. If it's right down the middle, that's another story!
    – Huesmann
    Commented Aug 7 at 14:39

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Stone or pavers, slightly higher or lower than driveway, will keep a separation, and alert drivers that they are off the concrete. Seems you might need some tall yard art by the phone posts since they are hard to see from a car.

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