RV Parking Restrictions - Santa Cruz, CA

[baldcamper]

RV Parking restrictions coming up see item 7 Transportation and Public Works Commission Meeting
• Date: 11/17/2014 7:00 PM
• Location: City Council Chambers
809 Center Street
Santa Cruz, California 95060 http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/home/showdocument?id=41012

Email the commission: scollins@cityofsantacruz.com and fwarren@cityofsantacruz.com

Good Sam Club
Parking Rights Council
parkingrights@goodsamclub

[Water-Bug]

WishWeWereCamping wrote:


There aren't that many places to park along West Cliff Drive and it's too narrow in most places to add any RV parking spots. There's usually somewhere else to park besides those few spots along the cliff.

I think that you have probably hit the nail on the head. Parking on West Cliff Drive has been an issue for over 50 years. The houses on the north side of the street are worth over a million bucks. The south side of the street, which is the ocean side, is public land. The land owners on the north side of the street have been trying to get control of the land on the south side, since the '60s. Back then, the complaint was the surfers and their woody wagons and VW buses or the teens watching submarine races at night. Of course, when the surf starts to errode the cliffs on the south side of the road, the homeowners on the north side are the first to point out that it is public land and needs to be maintained by the city, county or state.

[Water-Bug]

People LIVING in RVs are not homeless people. They are FULLTIMERS.

[WishWeWereCampi]

RV Parking Regulations to Increase Safety and Reduce Community Impacts
An overwhelming percentage of complaints regarding RVs stem from their blocking access to parking spaces along the coastal cliffs and beaches, camping in vehicles overnight, illegal activities, and public health concerns.


I think that what they're trying to control is mostly the population of homeless people living in RV's & their behaviors.

There aren't that many places to park along West Cliff Drive and it's too narrow in most places to add any RV parking spots. There's usually somewhere else to park besides those few spots along the cliff.

[Water-Bug]

Citys that want to enforce short term parking, chalk the tires and check X hours later. Citys that want revenue install meters.

[msmith1199]

Water-Bug wrote:
The PROBLEM isn't RVs, the PROBLEM is the Santa Cruz City Counsel. These are the same nuts that nearly jailed their local balloon blowing clown, because he was feeding expired parking meters that were occupied by vehicles that weren't registered to him. Metrer revenue wasn't enough, they wanted the fines.

EDIT. Google "Mr. Twister Santa Cruz" for tons of news coverage.

Lots of cities have similar laws and it's not just about collecting fines. When cities put in parking meters or time limited parking spaces, they do so because they only want people using those spaces for shot term parking. That's because businesses need places for their customers to park. What often happens is you will get a mix of retail businesses and professional offices in the same areas. The retail businesses need the parking spaces available for their customers who come and go. The professional offices don't need all the available parking for customers so the employees of those offices take up all the time limited parking spaces and then send somebody down every couple of hours to feed the meters for everybody. So it's not the city that wants the revenue so much as it is the retail businesses that don't want people taking up the same parking space all day and instead make it available for customers.

[Water-Bug]

The PROBLEM isn't RVs, the PROBLEM is the Santa Cruz City Counsel. These are the same nuts that nearly jailed their local balloon blowing clown, because he was feeding expired parking meters that were occupied by vehicles that weren't registered to him. Metrer revenue wasn't enough, they wanted the fines.

EDIT. Google "Mr. Twister Santa Cruz" for tons of news coverage.

[Camp__Forrest__]

The problem I see is that they are blocking RV parking in most lots (by limiting length), but not providing an alternative parking area. They are, in effect saying that RV's are not welcome along the ocean front. I'm curious about the length issue. If I back in so that my overhang extends over a lawn, grass strip, etc. I can fit in most spaces. Under the new regulations I do not fit within the space, but I am not taking more than one spot I wonder if that is still OK.

[Old-Biscuit]

In addition to illegal discharges, staff identified other issues related to RV parking including inhabitant criminal activities, unregulated parking in critical areas during the daytime and under-enforced regulation overnight..................complaints from neighbors about refuse accumulating around RVs, bicycles being stolen, private water connections being used, gasoline thefts, and waste water leaking onto the pavement in close proximity to parked RVs.

.....at least 400 notices were placed on RVs and makeshift RVs from July 2013 to July 2014 for various municipal code infractions

What do you expect a city to do?

[Moderator]

Moved from ATC

[msmith1199]

Jagtech wrote:
Only time I ever got a parking ticket as an out of country tourist was in Santa Cruz; They'll never see me again. Here in Alberta most municipalities won't parking ticket a tourist from out of state or province. We want them to stick around and spend money, not get mad and leave!
So long, Santa Cruz! You lose.

Down here in the States it would be called corruption for the police to play favorites and allow people to break the law based on their status as a tourist.

[Jagtech]

Only time I ever got a parking ticket as an out of country tourist was in Santa Cruz; They'll never see me again. Here in Alberta most municipalities won't parking ticket a tourist from out of state or province. We want them to stick around and spend money, not get mad and leave!
So long, Santa Cruz! You lose.

[msmith1199]

Looks reasonable to me.