RV and Trailer parking ban proposed in San Diego

[ttweed]

If you are a resident of San Diego and happen to have a car hauler as I do, please be aware that soon you will not be allowed to park it ANYWHERE on the streets of San Diego for more than 4 hours at a time, and NEVER between 2am and 6am or within 50 feet of any intersection without breaking the law, if a proposed new ordinance goes into effect.

The law is written so that even a dually pickup is considered an "oversize" vehicle (wider than 84") so even these innocuous and common vehicles will be banned. Any trailer or non-motorized vehicle is included. Any truck or RV longer than 22 feet, higher than 7 feet, or wider than 84" is included.

If you are a resident, you will be able to pay $15 for a 48-hour "permit" to park longer, but only 6 times per year. If you don't have off-street parking, you better start looking for it or call your councilperson before this is passed. It is being recommended by the city manager and my councilman, Scott Peters, supports it, as do a majority of citizens polled. Trailers are ugly. Not the correct ambiance for America's Finest City. Del Mar has already passed a similar ordinance and Oceanside is considering it also.

I think it sucks. I have off-street parking for my trailer, but if I pull it out the day before a race and load my car and let it sit in front of my house for an early morning departure, I will be violating the law.

There is a meeting of the Land Use and Housing Committee on April 20th at 2pm to discuss the regulations, on the 12th floor at 202 C St. if you want to voice your opinion. I have already emailed the Mayor and City Council with mine.

TT

[rss996]

bout time they staopped people from parking this kind of stuff in the streets!

[MVZ944T]

They worry about trivial crap like that while the city goes broke! At least in Temecula we have 72 hours! Whoopee!

[Dan Chambers]

I'm definitely not in favor of this. As a "team owner" of 5 vehicles and only 2 garage spaces (the Bockman-Chambers clan just can't seem to sell their cars!) on-street parking is very important to us from a practical point of view.

I will, however offer one anecdote to banning living-aboard RV's from long term street parking:

When I lived in PB there was a family living in a converted schoolbus-to-RV that cruised around the streets, "camping" on different streets every month. They appeared to be perminently living on the bus. These folks had no regard for the PB tax-paying residents. They were noisy. They were careless with their trash. They'd rummage through my dumpster for aluminum cans at midnight, usually with a good "buzz" going. One day I caught the guy changing his coolant into the stormdrain, the same system that drains into Tourmaline were swimmers and surfers go out in the water daily! When I told him it was both inconsiderate and illegal to do that, he told me to "F"- off! Of course I called the police, and the "bus" simply moved to another street before the police arrived, where the malarkie started all over again.

I think it is this kind of abuse of neighborhoods that the city council might want to address. Residents, parking their own vehicles in front of their own homes (the ones they pay local and state taxes on), and who's neighborhoods the council members represent (these are the local residents who elect them) should be allowed to use the streets they live on, pay for, and have representation for on the council.

So, drop a note to your local representitive. And, offer a solution to them for the people who live in your neighborhood: ie, vehicles registered to an address can park on the street directly in front of the registered address of that vehicle without restrictions.

The current system is 72-hours allowed parking on any residential street in the city of San Diego, with some exceptions (ie: around SDSU, where permits are isseud). Traditionally, the local police have turned a benign blind-eye to cars where they know the owners live in the house next to a particular parked car. My in-laws are an example of that. Whether the police will continue to "look the other way" with the new ordinance, when they know the owners, may be an issue for the future.

My opinion is, live-aboard RV's should be discouraged from "camping" on city streets. We have enough "transient population" issues as it is between tourism, students, summer-rental vacationers, homelessness, and transient non-documented workers migrating to LA.

I think we need to communicate our interests to our representitives clearly. So, write, phone, email, network, and have your voices heard by those who represent you.

Okay, my soap-box is broken. I'm done.

[mfoley]

I'm the first guy to care about the aesthetics of my neighborhood, however I have two trailers that I use regularly. I store both of them in paid for secure lots but when I use them I usually get them the night before an event/trip. They typically sit in front of my house for a day when I return from the event/trip too. The 72- hour rule works fine for me. Once again this is a case of not needing new laws just enforcing the ones we already have.

[Tim Comeau]

Have all the storage lot owners got together to force the people into using their services?
I feel I have a right to park in front of my own home and leave any of my vehicles there for as long as I want. If the city is trying to keep people from parking their up-on-blocks junkers on the street for months at a time, then they should target THAT problem, not cause problems for citizens with multiple vehicles. Are you really expected to shuffle your vehicles every 72 hours? (It needs to be more than 1/10th of a mile according to the law.)
It might be interesting to hear the reasons behind this move......

I love my country, but sometimes I hate my government.

[kary]

While I do not live in San Diego, this issue will clearly ripple outward to the north county. I have had small issue with folks (a city councilmen's wife who lives around the corner from me) that did not like me parking my trailer on the opposite side of the street where there were no houses overnight before leaving for an event. It turned out that her real issue was a guy near her that had a large motor home that he parked in front of her house for 3 weeks while he was building a wall to store his RV next to his house. He obviously should have talked with them about the temporary nature of the parking but did not and now she is overly sensitive to anything parking near her home even if it is not on her side of the street.

I hope this does not continue, because I am looking at a motor coach myself and do not want issues staging it for trips overnight or for a few hours for loading.

[rss996]

72 hour rule is perfect an should be standard everywhere....It is strange how a buyer will notice and mention parked trailers or RV's before they even mention the house or the lot...It does affect values more than people think....

[ttweed]

My opinion is, live-aboard RV's should be discouraged.

This is the intent of the new regulations, for sure, but the way it is written, a person could not park a dually pickup in front of their own house overnight.

That is just wrong. They're throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as my grandma used to say.

TT

[Tim Comeau]

We're a 4 vehicle family with a 2 car garage. Are we supposed to pay storage for the other 2 vehicles that don't get moved every 72 hours?
I couldn't care less about a "prospective " home owner or how easy or difficult it is to sell a house. I actually live here now and that's more important than the desires of someone who's "shopping" for a house in my neighborhood.
I haven't seen the housing market slow down in Rolando due to our trailers and RV's.
That's enough of my time spent on this insipid issue. People are creating problems for all of us when there is really only a small problem for a few.

[MikeD]

This really sucks Tom! Unfortunately, I am so busy getting my live-aboard RV (plus monster dually, btw) ready to live-aboard, that I just don't have time to flog my counselperson. Can you do it for me?

I suspect I should get my 72 hours of street-street living done in S.D. before this bill passes . Then I'll just trickel on up to Enc. and such...

[MikeD]

Tim: unless I am misreading Tom's post. It's RV's (motorhomes and camp trailers) and large trucks this bill is targeting. The 25 944's you have (or will have) on your street shouldn't be a problem .

[Tim Comeau]

[ttweed]

It looks like the city council did not act on the new ordinance yesterday, but instead tabled the item for further community review and comment. See the entire proposal by the City Manager here: http://clerkdoc.sannet.gov/RightSite/getcontent/local.pdf?DMW_OBJECTID=09001451800b7682

and make your comments to the City Council here:

http://www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/docket-comment.shtml

or send comments to your council member here:
http://www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/

TT

[rss996]

Hey Tim, I bet you will care when you do need to sell your house and dont get more money because of the RV parking lot.

I dont care if you could sell for more or not I am just stating the facts...