City to adopt tougher stance on long term RV parking
Tuesday night’s Paso Robles City Council Meeting.
Residents to apply for three day parking permits for RVs
–At Tuesday’s meeting the Paso Robles City Council voted unanimously to further regulate on-street parking of recreational vehicles (RVs), utility trailers and campers by application of a permit process as of May 3, 2016. Owners of these vehicles would be required to apply for a free permit which would allow temporary parking on city streets for up to 12 temporary three day parking periods per year.
The Paso Robles Police Department says it receives frequent complaints regarding on-street parking of RVs, specifically the long term parking of these vehicles that create visual pollution and unsafe roadway conditions, the report said.
Paso Robles Chief of Police Robert Burton said complaints have kept his staff very busy, with about 2,000 vehicle parking complaints per year and about 200 complaints per year for RV vehicles alone. “A lot of these vehicles are parked long term causing issues with safety and visual amenity,” he said. “We have brought this back to council in the hope we can rectify some of these complaints…The problem that we have is we get complaints from the resident, we will go out there and tag the vehicle and let the owner know they are in violation, often they will only move the vehicle a few feet potentially allowing the vehicle to be kept on the street indefinitely.” The way the ordinance was currently structured meant they weren’t able to manage residents complaints, the amendment to the ordinance will mean they will be able to greater regulate the parking of RVs, the permits will mean they can park their vehicle on the street for three days after those three days they can’t apply for another permit for 30 days, he said.
During its September 15, 2015 meeting, council asked that the regulation of onstreet parking for recreational vehicles be brought forward as a discussion item. The existing state and local codes do not specifically regulate on-street parking of RVs, codes merely limit the length of time a vehicle can be left parked on a roadway, the report said.
In order to give owners of recreational vehicles, utility trailers and campers sufficient notice of the new requirements and time to locate permanent parking locations if necessary, the ordinance will take effect three months after adoption on May 3, 2016. The police department will do as much as they can to notify residents of the changes, officers will provide permits in person or they will be available for application at the Paso Robles Police Department, Burton said.
The city will incur costs of $1,000 for signage identifying the parking restrictions at all major entrances to the city.
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