This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
The city council voted to approve the new ordinance to address the parking of RV's and trailers on city streets. It passed 5-2 with Councilmembers Christensen and Santos both voting against it.
The ordinance gives people 48 hours after they have been informed that they must move, to find a new location for their vehicle.
The vehicle must be moved at least 1 city block, defined as '600 feet' away from the previous spot.
The owner of the vehicle may apply for a permit to park for up to 7 days on any city street. The cost of that permit is $40 and there are no limits on the number of permits they can apply for or restrictions on where they can or cannot park.
As noted by several citizens who spoke during the citizen comment period, this would allow someone in an RV to park in front of a house or business, anywhere in Longmont, for $40 per week, and only have to move once every week. They could, for instance, find two spots they liked and move between those two spots indefinitely. City staff, when asked if that was accurate, agreed that it was.
City staff said that there are 336 total abandoned vehicles with 20 pending making it 356 total. There are approximately 15-20 trailers.
Councilman Bagley said, "we have to start somewhere" and then recounted the story about how Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, hated that he had nowhere to park his RV, which is why Walmart allows people to park their RV's in Walmart parking lots.
Councilman Santos felt this wasn't really an issue and that there isn't a need for such an ordinance. He thought it was a small issue in small part of the city. He'd heard more concerns about people who couldn't park their own RV's in front of their house, that there were a lot of constitutional issues and that he would vote against it.
Councilwoman Finley thinks, "over 300 vehicles are too many, we had to start somewhere and we should do this."
Councilwoman Peck suggested, "we create a task force made up of citizens who work with city staff to continue work on the ordinance."
Since they voted to adopt this ordinance (see complete document below), this would mean that a task force, if formed, would need to bring this up in front of a future city council.
