Overnight RV parking ban goes to Olympia Council

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.

Chambers, who lives in a 1975 model RV on Franklin Street, said Monday afternoon he's trying to turn his life around. With three felonies — two for methamphetamine possession and one for escape — he said it's difficult to find an apartment.

"I'm stuck here, all right," he said. He said it's also difficult to find an RV park that will accept him — they have limits on how old an RV can be. One, for example, requires an RV model that's 1993 or newer.

"You got a lot of people that are just trying to survive," fellow camper Robert James Heagy said in an interview. He said he can't find another place to stay because he's a registered Level III sex offender. He said the campers work together to keep the area clean.

Chambers said he gets by on $440 in benefits and is trying to get disability benefits. Heagy added," between me and my girl, we only make $300 a month."

Andrew McQuilken implored the committee. "We're just trying to live," he said, "just like everybody else."

Some residents suggested finding a lot where people could park their RVs legally. They said a city employee visited their home to ask if they would move if the city would supply a piece of land.

Three members of the City Council act as the landuse committee. They were sympathetic but that the full council needed to take up the issue.

Councilwoman Joan Machlis said the city has many unmet housing needs, but city streets aren't set up for permanent living spaces. "I don't believe we should have people living on the streets in our parking areas without sanitary facilities, without water," she said.

Councilwoman Karen Messmer generally agreed with Machlis and said the city isn't equipped to be the sole provider for homeless issues and that the county should take up the issue. The third committee member, Rhenda Strub, was absent.

Machlis said the status quo is not acceptable. "I'm saying that I do not think this is the solution," she said. "I also do not know what the solution is."

Matt Batcheldor covers the city of Olympia for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-704-6869 or mbatcheldor@theolympian.com.