CYPRESS : RV Storage Yard Can Keep Longer Hours

The City Council has narrowly agreed to extend the operating hours of a recreational vehicle storage yard, despite residents’ complaints that noisy patrons break the established curfew and disturb the neighborhood’s peace.

In a 3-2 decision Monday, council members Gail H. Kerry, Cecilia L. Age and Joyce C. Nicholson voted to allow H & M Recreational Vehicle Storage at 4656 Lincoln Ave. to operate from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. during Daylight Savings Time.

The council added the condition that in October, when Standard Time begins, the business will have to switch back to the current hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The decision is subject to review in six months.

“I really think having the RV lot is a good idea,” Nicholson said. “It gets 324 vehicles off the streets.”

Several residents living in the vicinity of the storage lot complained to the council that noise already was a problem and that extending the hours would only make it worse.

“The homeowners adjacent to the business experience a lot of grief,” Robert Stack told the council. Stack said he had been forced to call the police late at night when he could no longer take the noise.

“You are going to give them the legal opportunity to make more noise,” said longtime resident Howard Neill. Opponents said that noise came from both H & M and a nearby manufacturing plant, Hyatt Die Cast. They admitted that sometimes it was hard to determine the source of the disturbance.

Police Chief Daryl Wicker said that in the last two years, police have received two complaints about noise from the vehicle storage business. Wicker added that when police investigated Stack’s complaint, they found that a drunk had scaled the wall and was rummaging through some of the parked vehicles.

A handful of people who use the storage yard argued for the new hours. They said that getting their vehicles into the lot by 5 p.m. was hard, especially during the busy summer months. “We find it extremely difficult if not impossible to get back (from trips) at 5 o’clock at night,” one RV enthusiast told the council.

Despite a request by Mayor Walter K. Bowman and Councilman Richard Partin that the vote be delayed until the homeowners speak with company officials, the remainder of the council decided to approve the proposal.

It was the second time that H & M had asked the council for expanded hours. A similar request in 1986 was turned down because of several concerns, including permit violations by the company, which had operated beyond the established hour limits.

The homeowners will be given one more chance to express their concerns when the council re-examines its decision early next year.