Yes - great!
I had a terrific lesson in this when I was trying to get a permit to shoot scenes from my first feature both inside and outside my parents' house (they had already agreed AND I had insurance for the entire project). I knew we'd have a lot of trucks and cars on the street for several days, so I wanted to do it by the book to avoid problems.
I filled out all the paperwork, and brought it to the city clerk's office. They said no. Absolutely, positively no. It turns out that the town had had a very bad experience ten years earlier with a big Hollywood production that made a mess of the town for weeks. After that, they vowed that they'd never give out another film permit for anything - so the rule was on the books for p.r. only.
I explained the entire situation to the (quite nice) city clerk, who knew my parents (everyone did). She got on the phone with the police chief and had a whispered conversation. Then she took me in her office, sat me down, and this was the conversation we had.
City clerk: Repeat after me: I am interviewing my mother about her family [note - I had already told her that the movie was inspired by my mom's family].
Me: I am interviewing my mother about her family.
City clerk: Great. No matter who asks you what, stick to that!
Follow up: I sent my parents to the beach for a few days to celebrate my dad's birthday - aka get them out of the way.
My dad - a retired lawyer - told me to keep the crew and the cameras etc on their property, and follow parking rules, and there would be nothing the cops could do.
I was scrupulous about this - to the point where we shot a pick up scene that takes place in a car with it parked on the lawn.
The cops drove by slowly many times, but never stopped.
On my second feature, we also shot at their house but (intentionally) only indoors. I didn't ask for a permit that time.
So yeah - what
@Rayandmigdalia said - look as small and unimportant as possible!