This really depends on your perspective. I grew up in a college town. Imagine owning a home and having to walk half a mile- with groceries and a toddler-- because students are illegally parked in front of your house (with a sign which says “permit parking only”) day after day after day. They get tickets- which pile up on the windshield- until they get towed and then there’s a hue and cry “I couldn’t afford to get my car out of the impound lot”. Or students who park their cars in private driveways before they leave for the weekend or on break.
You call it over zealous. I call it protecting the rights of property owners NOT to have careless students overrun their neighborhood. And this was a town with great public transportation and really NO need for a student to have a car on campus. Which is why the campus had limited and expensive parking- and the students felt the need to leave their cars on the surrounding streets.
If a college limits parking there is surely a reason.