Overnight RV parking ban goes to Olympia Council

Committee recommends rule despite objections of 40 at meeting

By Matt Batcheldor | The Olympian • Published May 20, 2008

More than 40 people, many of whom live in recreational vehicles in downtown Olympia, implored the Olympia City Council's landuse committee Monday night not to approve a proposed ordinance that would ban parking RVs overnight on city streets. But the committee recommended the proposal to the full City Council, which could vote on it soon.

People who live in the campers say they can't get into apartments or homes and living in a RV is a stopgap measure. Some said they had felony convictions and that they're trying to turn their life around, but that it's difficult to find apartments. And they wondered what will happen to them; Lacey and Tumwater ban overnight parking, with limited exceptions.

"I have no other place to go," said Dana Arthur Chambers, who camps along Franklin Street near the bus station. "There's no place for us to go."

The ordinance would ban RV parking between 3 and 6 a.m., including weekends and holidays. Permit could be obtained for up to 10 days under specific conditions.

The penalty would be $75 for each offense, and after the third offense, the vehicle could be impounded.

City staff drafted the ordinance after receiving complaints, including some from area businesses.

A staff report says: "These trailers and their occupants take up parking spaces designed for visitors and customers, operate power generators on sidewalks which create noise pollution, store gasoline cans next to the generators and, in some instances, dump raw sewage onto city streets. In general, they create a permanent living space on a public right-of-way to the exclusion of the general public and potentially pose a public health and safety issue."

Recreational vehicles are often parked at nine-hour meters, for a total of $3 per weekday and free on evenings, weekends and holidays. At least seven RVs were parked Monday afternoon in the area between Franklin and Adams streets and Olympia and Thurston Avenues, near the Olympia Transit Center. Several old cars and vans, some that provide shelter for those without RVs, were parked nearby.