town ordinace against travel trailers on city streets

We live in one of the "smallest" cities in Virginia and our ordinance states that only vehicles that are currently registered (therefore have insurance) and tagged can be parked ON the street for more than 72 hours. After that, they can be towed. I had a lengthy conversation with one of our councilmen about this ordinance and it's affect or really non-affect on RV's since in Virginia, they must be insured, tagged and registered. This keeps the cars up on blocks out of the road, yards and in public site.

Just a note, ours is parked on our property on a gravel driveway that we built specifically for that purpose with 30 amp service, cable hookup and near our water supply. It is adjacent to the roadway, but with 15' of clearance off the road.

Not really sure what the rules are but I am on a cul d sac which is a bit o f a hill so street parking would not be good. I put it in the driveway and that is that. When the kids are here we have 3 cars in front of the house but because it is a large cul d sac, everyone parks nose in so more cars fit.

I think the regulations banning or limiting parking an RV on your own property are ridiculous. The suggestion that parking my RV in my driveway will lead to a car on blocks on my front lawn is hysterical. I also find it funny that folks are all in an uproar because the government wants to regulate on-road safety with ATVs, but think it's perfectly OK for the government (or neighbors) to regulate what I can park on my own property.

With that, I do understand limiting parking of RVs, etc. on the street. On my street, if there is a car parked on either side, only one vehicle can fit between them. Meaning traffic is congested. As RVs are likely to sit for lengthier stretches of time, and are usually wider than cars, that will just make the congestion worse.

rode2nowhere wrote:
complaints I have heard is we already pay taxes, looks just as bad or worse parked in yard, I just don't get it I guess

You pay taxes to maintain the city utilities, including street maintenance, not to provide a parking lot. Our city has the same 72 hour ordinance.. Don't like it but I get it.. Find storage if it won't fit on the property.

3oaks wrote:
This business of having to hide your trailer in the back yard and behind a fence is ridiculous. I have heard about other communities where pickup trucks, no matter how new, could not be left parked in the drive ways. They had to be hidden from sight in the garage. Ridiculous! I would never want to live in a snobby community such as that even if I could afford it.

If you lived near me, I would allow you to park your trailers on my property free of charge. I would welcome a devaluation of my property. Maybe then my property taxes would be lowered to reflect lowered assessment. Property taxes are getting way out of hand in my area.

Don't believe the original OP said, parking in the driveway. He stated parked on the street year round. Just because you can't afford to put your RV in a enclosure, does not mean people that can should accept your actions. Park a dozen of them on your property and accept the consequences.

It's 48 hours where we live to load, unload, clean and minor maintence. Personally I would not want to be looking out the front of my house at a trailer/rv everyday.

Our town of about 3500 people had an ordinance for parking of an rv. You could not park on the street at all and they had to be parked beside your house. The city decided to start enforcing it and a friend was notified that his trailer had to be parked behind the rear plane of his house. I told him the ordinance said a trailer had to be behind the front plane. His trailer was parked behind the front plane of his house.

He went to the next city council meeting and pointed this out and their response was "We will have to rewrite the ordinance". Took them a year to rewrite the ordinance. My friend couldn't move his trailer back so he moved out of the city.

As much as I like RV's and boats, can't understand why anyone would want to park one in front of their house for extended periods of time. I think the majority of people would go with this in a neighborhood?

If you don't have the room then other storage options are out there.

Just my 2 cents.

I'm and avid, hard core RV'er, but I certainly don't want a bunch of RV's parked up and down my street full time.
I think a 72 hr. ordinance is a good compromise for public road ways.

Not to many cities allow parking ON the street, for more than say 2 or 3 days. And many cities require a trailer to be hitched to a truck while parked in the street. Parking in your driveway is normally allowed.

Most of the cities that have the ordinance also wait to send out a parking enforcement officer until they get complaints, normally from a real estate agent or local neighbor who has nothing better to do. Real estate agents 'think' that they can sell a house for more money once all that trashy RV's are gone from the streets. . .

I would prefer parking my RV on my property!

Fred.