The Lompoc City Council is considering an ordinance that could change how RVs with city parking permits can park on public streets.
Under current Lompoc city code, RVs are prohibited from parking on city streets between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless the owner has an RV parking permit.
The permit allows an RV to park on the same street as the owner’s residence, within 100 feet of the property line. However, RVs with permits must still follow the city’s 72-hour street parking limit.
The City Council changed that rule last November, requiring vehicles to move at least 150 feet every 72 hours.
The city is now considering changing how the rule applies to RVs with valid parking permits following feedback from the community, according to Lompoc City Councilmember Victor Vega.
“They do not want to be subject to the 72-hour rule where you’d have to move your RV regardless of it being in front of your property,” Vega said. “So we’re revisiting it right now to try and help residents that are actually paying for a permit of two years.”
Under the proposed ordinance, RVs with valid parking permits would no longer be subject to the 72-hour parking limit. They would still have to park within 100 feet of the residence listed on the permit.
However, permitted RVs could not remain in the same location for 21 or more consecutive days.
Public Information Officer Emily Prueitt said the 21-day provision is intended to prevent permit holders from using a parking permit to permanently store an RV on a city street.
For RV owners who live in their vehicles, finding a safe and legal place to park can be a challenge.
James Crumbley lives in his RV full-time and said he spent his first two years moving from location to location, often after receiving complaints.
“In the first two years, we were just going from place to spot to spot, different areas,” Crumbley said. “Just finding an area that was safe, seemed safe. But then we would get a complaint, get our tire mark, have to move to a different area.”
Crumbley said he believes repeatedly moving RVs does not address the larger issues facing people who live in them.
“They just push very common citizens around, especially us and especially homeless people,” Crumbley said.
Janie Johnson, another RV owner, said she supports allowing residents to legally park their RVs but wants the city to continue enforcing rules against illegally parked RVs.
“I appreciate that they let us do that, but I do hope they’re cracking down on the illegal use of the RV, providing somewhere for the people who are having to live in them to be able to go that’s safe and not just parked on a side street or something,” Johnson said.
The proposed ordinance would also change how the city enforces the 72-hour parking rule for other vehicles.
Currently, the Lompoc Police Department has a 48-hour window after the 72-hour period expires to cite or order a vehicle towed.
According to a statement from Prueitt, the proposed change would give officers up to 14 days after the 72-hour period expires to enforce the rule.
The change comes after police determined the current 48-hour enforcement window can be difficult to meet because of call volumes and other responsibilities.
Vega said the city’s current parking regulations have also helped police address abandoned RVs throughout Lompoc.
“We have an ordinance in place where the police department has been very proactive in having these RVs moved and these abandoned ones having them moved to a different area or taking them completely off the street because many of the RVs that were here are unregistered or uninsured,” Vega said.
Any changes to the city’s RV parking rules would not take effect until the ordinance completes the required approval process.
