City Council limits RV parking on Lakewood streets

Ordinance changes target on-street 'storage' of RVs.

LAKEWOOD – Owners of recreational vehicles no longer will be allowed to park on city streets indefinitely after City Council decided to limit RV parking to 48-hour stretches earlier this week.

The changes to the city’s parking code also will allow two-week parking for folks staying in their RVs while visiting local residents.

The changes, which go into effect before summer’s end, were the topic of the city’s first on-line opportunity for citizens to post comments and opinions before City Council addressed the issue in a public hearing Monday.

But a lot of folks also showed up to put in their two cents’ worth in person.

Orville Anderson said he still can’t figure out why the time limits are needed, but did suggest the city set a minimum distance from intersections for RV parking.

“I live in an area where the are a lot of RVs parked on the street and they are not a problem for me,” Anderson said.

The city’s Code Enforcement Department logs between 30 and 45 complaints about parked RVs each year, representing less than 1 percent of complaint calls to the department. Only five such complaints have been logged since Jan. 1, according to a Code Enforcement official.

Eva Dunham, though, said she and her family are forced to gaze on a rusty, stained RV from their yard, calling it an “eyesore”. The RV is one of many parked along New Mexico Avenue, which residents now refer to as “The New Mexico Avenue trailer park.”

“It has become a running joke with the businesses and all of us who live there.”

The revised ordinance, the result of two study sessions since April that resulted in the draft ordinance approved 11-0 Monday, was initiated by a citizens advisory committee.

The goal of the ordinance is to “prevent storage of recreational vehicles and trailers on city streets, while allowing reasonable access to these vehicles by owners,” said Police Chief Kevin Paletta.

The revised ordinance requires any RVs parked on city streets be located in front of the residence (house, town house or apartment) of its owners. The same holds for RVs parked under the 2-week permit for visitors, Paletta said.

But Paletta added that because the ordinance is designed to persuade RTV owners to store them elsewhere, not punish them, “the fines for violations are fairly modest.” The initial fine would be $72 under the ordinance approved by Council.

The permits for extended visitor parking would be available through Paletta’s office, on-line or at the site the RV is parked. Only one 2-week permit would be allowed each year, but a second could be issued if circumstances warrant, Paletta said.

The ordinance also prohibits owners from moving the vehicle a short distance after the time limit expires or restarting the clock by returning an RV to the same spot after a brief trip around the block.

The revised ordinance also prohibits parking “any commercial vehicle, commercial trailer, truck exceeding six thousand pounds empty weight, or a combination of a trailer and motor vehicle over twenty-five feet in length in any residential zoned district unless the vehicle is being used to render services to a property located within two hundred feet of where the prohibited vehicle is parked.”

Council members balked at a proposal from Ward 4 Councilman Dave Wiechman to allow RVs to be parked on the street for up to 72 hours, addressing an issue raised by some RV owners who said 48 hours isn’t long enough to load or unload, perform needed maintenance and safety checks and clean the vehicle.

 Council rejected Wiechman’s amendment 8-3.