FULLERTON : Council Rejects Codes Limiting RV Parking

Motor home and trailer owners made their point: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to park and store an RV. By and large, the City Council agreed.

After hearing the cries of recreational vehicle owners, the council only modified existing restrictions Tuesday on parking and storage of RVs on front driveways. Just as they did last summer, the council rejected proposed new codes that owners complained would have infringed on their property rights and created a bureaucratic nightmare.

“This country was built on freedom,” resident Craig Jones told the council. “Why are politicians so interested in taking that away from us? What are you going to do next? Tell us what color to paint our house?”

At issue were “oversize” RVs--such as motor homes and house trailers--that are longer than 19 feet, taller than 9 feet and wider than 7 feet. Almost all of the 250 people who attended the meeting said their vehicles fell into that category.

The council’s 3-2 decision only adds new provisions to an existing ordinance, including a ban on RV parking if it causes a visibility hazard or endangers public health. The new provisions also prohibit parking RVs parallel to the front of a house, unless a resident has a circular driveway and adequately screens the vehicle from view. Another clause bans RV parking on front driveways if owners have driveway access to the side or rear yard.

“We’re not Irvine, we’re not Laguna Beach, and we shouldn’t be either,” said Councilman Chris Norby, who voted for the modified codes along with Mayor Don Bankhead and Councilman A.B. (Buck) Catlin.

After a meeting in July, the city’s planning staff drew up a compromise between the RV owners and other residents, who complain that the vehicles hurt their property values and cause safety hazards by obstructing views. The city gets about 50 calls a year complaining about RVs, and existing codes are so vague that enforcement officers have been unable to issue citations, city officials said.

“If the codes are weak, then the city becomes junky,” said Tom Key, a real estate broker who cited cases of RVs stored on front yards and being left in dilapidated shape.

The city’s proposal would have eliminated the vague 1967 ordinance and replaced it with new restrictions prohibiting most new owners of oversize RVs from parking in their front driveways. Those who currently own RVs would have been protected by a clause allowing them to continue as before, provided they obtained a free parking permit within 180 days of the approval of the ordinance.

But even with the “grandfather” clause, current RV owners weren’t happy. Many argued that the proposal conflicted with the guarantee of constitutional freedoms as well as the pursuit of the “American Dream” and the recreational California lifestyle.

One woman argued that the proposal would prevent her family from owning an RV, and that her children would be led to a life of gangs, prostitution and drugs because they wouldn’t be able to go on family outings.

The council also removed an inconsistency in the city codes by no longer attempting to restrict RVs based on whether they are “stored” or “parked.” Under the old code, RVs were banned from being stored in most front driveways and yards, but they could be parked there, making enforcement by city inspectors troublesome.