CITY HALL — Life as an RV is about to get tougher.
After four years of protests from residents over their cumbersome presence on neighborhood streets, the city is poised to enact tough new restrictions that would bar any RV from parking on city streets without a permit.
The ban would allow for few exceptions, mostly for mechanical problems, and represent a major development in the drawn out tussle between residents and owners of recreational vehicles.
More than 250 complaints have poured into the Police Department regarding large vehicles parked for extended periods of time on public streets, blocking driveways and views. Complaints reached a crescendo when one man approached the City Council and threatened to rent an RV and park in it in front of each of their homes for a week to demonstrate the problem.
“The ordinance before you is a four-year journey,” said Ken Johnson, the city’s traffic engineer. “And I say journey because we had starts and stops and twists and turns.”
The new rules, versions of which have been adopted by growing list of neighboring cities, are designed to eliminate storage of the large vehicles on residential neighborhoods while maintaining trouble-free access to load and unload them for trips, Johnson said.
“It’s nothing mind-blowing, but it’s a solid step,” said 15-year-resident Jerry Earles, who said he regularly pestered neighbors about their RVs. “Anything but keeping the status quo.”
Under the ordinance that last week received a greenlight from the City Council, all recreational vehicles would need a one-day permit — which would be available 24 hours online — that could be combined with additional permits for a maximum parking time of three days. Each vehicle would be issued no more than 96 permits annually, though that could change to between 48 to 144 days, city officials said.That means that a large, non-commercial vehicle cannot park on a city street for even a moment unless it has a valid parking permit. RV drivers without a permit would be prohibited from stopping off at businesses unless they had a parking lot or pulling over to fix a mechanical problem, said traffic Commissioner David Justl.
“If the driver of a large, non-commercial vehicle pulls over to the side of the road to check his or her map that large, non-commercial vehicle is subject to a ticket,” he said.
