Council puts curb on RV living trend

The Sundance City Council will be taking steps to stop people from living in RVs on the driveways of residents or public streets within city limits. It’s believed to be a growing problem, but the city already has the ordinance in place to deal with it.

Public Works Director Mac Erickson described a “handful” of complaints about occupied RVs, notably involving power cords strung across the public sidewalk, creating a tripping hazard.

“I’ve had a couple of people talk to me about an RV parked on the city street with people living in it,” said Erickson.

“I’m nervous about the future of that – going down there and just staking out on the city street and calling it home.”

Council Member Randy Stevenson felt Erickson was right to be concerned.

“It happens every day, all day in the big city and they can’t get rid of it,” he said.

Actually, said Mayor Paul Brooks, the city does have rules prohibiting this behavior. While they have not recently been enforced, he felt the time might be coming to do so.

“It seems to me like we’re getting a few more,” Brooks said, later adding, “They’re getting to be more and I’m hearing a lot more grumbling and I’m pretty sure a lot of them are construction workers that don’t have a place to go.”

Council members outlined several reasons that the city would not support renting out or living in RVs within the city.

“What are they doing with their gray water?” Brooks asked.

He also spoke to the unfairness for residents who bought their homes with the expectation that they would be living next to the neighbors in adjacent houses.

“The reason the ordinance is there is that we had some problems years ago when they started in the summer on a construction job and then they winterized it and suddenly the neighbors didn’t have you for a neighbor, they had you and the people living in your yard in an RV,” he said.

Stevenson spoke to the issue faced by large cities when people park up RVs and live inside them. Though the city will often move them, he said, they will often simply find a new place to park and, “Wherever they go, small theft goes through the roof – car theft and residential burglary.”

Allowing it, continued Brooks, would mean foregoing the possibility of Sundance ever having an RV park.

As far as the current situation goes, the city’s rules do not prohibit residents from owning RVs and keeping them on their property. It speaks only to the use of those vehicles, Brooks said.

“You can park it there, you can’t live in it,” he said.

The city’s policy on RVs is outlined in Ordinance 2, 2008, which regulates parking and placement on private and public property.

According to that ordinance, an RV can be stored on its owner’s premises for any length of time, as long as it is set back at least six feet from the curb or projected curb line and has a state license and attached plates.

However, the ordinance states that it is not lawful for a person to keep or maintain an RV on a public street or on land that belongs to someone else or is public land without express permission.

In addition, the ordinance allows for an RV to be occupied for no more than two continuous weeks “while visiting family or friends or while attending or participating in a locally sponsored meeting, event or activity”. The RV must be self-contained and sanitary facilities as required by law must be provided on the lot or land.

The council expressed its support for continuing to allow people to stay in RVs for the two-week period outlined in the ordinance, However, if these rules are being broken, said Council Member Callie Hilty, “Then maybe we need to write some letters.”

The council decided to do so as a first step to solving the issue.