EVERETT — One thing’s for sure: These RV owners were not happy campers.
Officials decided Tuesday night to go back to the drawing board with a proposal that sought to limit where recreation vehicles, trailers and boats could be stored on residential lots.
At the moment, city code says only where people may store RVs and large boats (along the side and rear of their homes). The proposal would have prohibited parking anywhere between the house and the streets that border it — including the driveway.
It also required all vehicles that need tabs to have one that’s current.
Those ideas were so unpopular, more than a 100 people jammed into a Planning Commission meeting to give city staff and the commission an angry earful that lasted nearly two hours.
Most people viewed the proposal as an infringement on their property rights.
Some worried about RV pads they’d built that would no longer conform. Others said they’d have no place to park their boats and campers, other than the street, and storing off site would be a financial burden.
Several people said the city was overreaching its authority by forcing people to keep their tabs current.
“What I’m finding out now is I don’t own my driveway,” Gary Vanhorn of Everett said. “I want to deduct it from my property tax.”
People were so spitting angry, commissioner Don Hale had to tell the audience to simmer down.
The city was trying to put more teeth into its code so it could deal with tough nuisance cases, the ones where a neighbor has parked his camper so long on his front lawn it’s moldering, said Kevin Fagerstrom, code enforcement director.
Officials also were concerned about new developments where all the homes were built close together and shared an easement. The city’s had problems with people parking their recreational toys so close to the easement that emergency vehicles couldn’t squeeze through.
“Right now we don’t have a tool to enforce it,” Fagerstrom said.
Before the meeting, Allan Giffen, planning and community development director, said the proposal was also about aesthetics. RVs parked in front of every home on the block can affect property values, he said.
The city’s code enforcement works on a complaint basis, meaning they don’t trawl neighborhoods fishing for violations, he said. The goal is getting people to comply and officers mete out fines only after someone has refused to make a change. There is also an appeal process. The fine is $500 a day.
At the meeting, officials also wanted people to know that under the code people weren’t supposed to be parking their RVs and large boats in the front yard now.
Giffen described the proposal as “a change in the structure of the language.”
People at the meeting weren’t buying it. The language of the current code is ambiguous: It doesn’t say anything about not parking in driveways, and it allows RVs and boats along the side of the house, they said.
“These are very strong, serious code changes,” Michelle Johnson of Everett said. “Let’s call a spade a spade.”
The commissioners delayed making a recommendation about the proposal. Instead, they asked city staff to go back and take a closer look at the code. As part of that review, they’ll consider a provision that would allow people to park recreational vehicles in their driveways. Staff also said they’ll look at other city codes to see if there’s something already on the books that might help.
Giffen said a proposal probably would not show up again at the Planning Commission until the fall.
When and if it does, the City Council still would have to approve anything the commission recommends.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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