RV Parking Bylaw To Be Examined
Prince George, B.C.- The City of Prince George is hoping for voluntary compliance on the bylaw which restricts where folks can park their RVs on their property.
The bylaw, ( Zoning bylaw 7850 section 7.1.14) reads as follows:
No more than one camper vehicle, one passenger bus and one trailer shall be parked or stored on a lot zoned RS or RT, provided that any camper vehicle, passenger bus or trailer longer than 6.1 m is not parked in the required front yard.
The bylaw is enforced by complaints and over the past few years there have been 8 such complaints in 2012, another 15 complaints in 2013, and so far this year, there have been a dozen complaints. City Manager Beth James says despite the number of complaints, not one violation ticket was issued, rather, Bylaw Services works with the property owner to resolve the issue.
Councillor Brian Skakun called on his Council Colleagues for some action, including directing Bylaw Services NOT to enforce this section, that warnings only be handed out “until we have meaningful community consultation on the matter” and possibly consider amending the section of the bylaw.
He also noted that residents concerned about the matter had a great deal of difficulty in finding the exact wording of the bylaw.
“I think what we want to do is have that conversation out in the public” says Councillor Frank Everitt but says it may be better to have the discussion in the spring.
Councillor Lyn Hall says the issue seems to be ensuring there is space to pile snow during the winter. City staff advised Council the first 15 feet from the roadway on to the lot, belongs to the City.
“I don’t think we have done a great job in the past communicating this bylaw” says City Manager Beth James, “I think what I would like to see is to allow us to continue with the public education and dialogue.” She says by the City acting as the middle person, it reduces the tensions between neighbours. James agrees it is difficult to find bylaw information on the city’s website, and there are efforts underway to improve that situation, “We need to do a better job of that and that is something we are committed to doing.”
Council supported referring the matter to Administration to be included in the 2015 work plan for further discussion.
Comments
If they’re worried about the snow removal aspect, why not just restrict them from being within 15 feet of the roadway?
I drove through my neighbourhood a few days ago and counted 10 RV’s which were all over 20 feet long parked in their front driveways.
Lets say a fella named Joe gets in a tiff with his neighbour about the leaves falling from Joe’s big Poplar Tree on neighbours yard. Neighbour can’t phone City Hall and complain about these leaves, that would be silly right? But he can phone and complain about Joe’s travel trailer! So here come the friendly City Bylaws Officer to carry out his enforcement duties.
He’s the ridiculousness of this Bylaw, Mr Bylaws Officer has to drive by 9 offending RV’s to go and give Joe a verbal warning, a warning ticket, a fine, or whatever the flavour of the day is at City Hall.
The moral of this little story………. don’t piss off your neighbour!
I personally don’t like RVs in people’s driveways.. But I don’t own their house/land so they can do,what they want. I do agree RVs should not be allowed to be parked on the road unless packing or unpacking for a trip. But then again some people in this town can’t grasp on moving their cars off the road when they plow the streets..let’s hope they don’t own RVs :)
I,am sure we will continue to hear all about this major issue from council as they try to get their names in the media for free advertisement as we close in on Election Day ;)
“I don’t think we have done a great job in the past communicating this bylaw”
Beth, your statement would be more accurate if you deleted the word “past” and ended your sentence at “communicating”. Despite 2 communicators on the payroll, you still have a problem.
HE WHO DIES WITH THE MOST TOYS WINS.
“I personally don’t like RVs in people’s driveways”
So, are you saying you don’t think any one should possess an RV or are you implying that an RV owner should be forced to store their personal property off their own personal real property?
Would it matter if the property was owned by the resident or if it is rented?
I take you do not own an RV. Is that correct? If you do own an RV, where do you keep it?
If you do not own an RV, how do you know the value it has to its owner?
Do you have a low cost/no cost solution for an RV owner?
Having reasonable access to an RV has improved our family quality of life. My spouse almost literally lives for the weekend when we can get out of town and enjoy not hearing lawn mowers, chainsaws, and ATV’s or seeing any other people. We are a little anti-social that way, but that is our privilege in this free, democratic country.
We are not as comfortable in a tent, sleeping on the ground as in our younger days.
I don’t have an RV so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I do question the City’s focus on this particular bylaw when there are very few public complaints about it. I think it needs to be rewritten with safety and snowclearing in mind, but other than that, you would think the City has bigger fish to fry.
“City staff advised Council the first 15 feet from the roadway on to the lot”
Not entirely true in all cases
Loki, you are wrong. I do own a Motorhome. It is parked at my ladies place on her 5 acres out of town. We camp as much as we can as well. I just gave my opinion of parking on your own driveway, said I didn’t like it, but also said it was their property so do,with it what you want. I am dead set against them being parked on the street, due to,it’s usually the monster motorhomes or fifth wheels that take up so much room also a major obstruction for emergency vehicles to,navigate around.
Bylaws are useless if they are not enforced. Vehicles parked on the streets where no parking is posted should be ticketed and towed. All too often there has been no action taken, so why expect compliance? RV’s, uninsured vehicles, utility trailers etc that are parked in storage too close to the road are a hinderance to snow removal. So, bylaw should be out and cruising the streets upon first snowfall giving warnings to everyone in violation, then within a week they should return to start writing tickets. People will quickly get the hint and the problem will dwindle. Other than not getting your street plowed at all, there is nothing worse than having the road graded only to find big messes where people left vehicles parked, or streets becoming narrow due to driveway piles creeping out onto the street because somebody’s front yard is a storage spot for their toys and the loaders have nowhere to pile the snow from driveways.
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