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January 29, 2008
Dealing with Those Pesky RVs
A reader, Zach, submitted a question last week about RVs parking on his street in Hollywood:
I live on Gower, south of Sunset, and my street is always filled with homeless people living in RVs. Is there any recourse I can take to get them to leave? Are they breaking any laws?Technically, these folks are not breaking the law... yet. And all this can change in a matter of a few months all because LADOT got a new General Manager (Rita Robinson, formerly of the City's Bureau of Sanitation). For almost 18 months, the City has had an ordinance on the books that prohibits parking of recreational vehicles over 22 feet long and 84 inches high on City streets between 2am and 6am. This ordinance was not able to implamented because the Council wanted to allow for the loading and unloading (read: parking) of such vehicles on a tempory basis by permit only. Addionally, this ordinance could only be put into effect if signage was posted indicating the new rule. All of this was supposed to be done over a year ago, but just last week, LADOT issued a report acknowledging the plan they have in place to adhere to these requirements.
After many meetings, the City will be piloting these special districts in Council District 15 and 11 to see how the newly developed system works and to work out any unforseen kinks. The Department has already ordered signs to be placed and selected the pilot areas, following these steps:
1. December 19, 2007 -- January 9, 2008 - Identify one pilot Oversize Vehicle No Parking Area within both Council District 15 and 11 to test the signage and permit sales process.2. January 11, 2008 -- Oversize Vehicle No Parking signs ordered.
3. January 15, 2008 -- ACS Oversize Vehicle Parking Permit sales procedures will be fully operational. [ACS is the contractor that currently sells Preferential Parking District permits.]
4. Due January 23, 2008 -- Transportation Committee report and draft Council resolution authorizing the installation of oversize vehicle No Parking signs in the two pilot areas.
5. January 30, 2008 -- Council adopts resolutions establishing two pilot Oversize Vehicle No Parking areas.
6. February 4-22, 2008 -- DOT District staff write work orders to install Oversize Vehicle No Parking signs in two pilot areas.
7. February 22, 2008 -- Letters sent notifying residents of need to purchase permits before sign installation date.
8. February 25 - March 14, 2008 -- ACS sells Oversize Vehicle Parking Permits.
9. March 17, 2008 -- Oversize Vehicle No Parking signs installed and enforcement begins.
After a 30-day pilot period and working out any of the aforementioned kinks, LADOT will role out the program to the rest of the Council Districts in the City based upon request.
All that said, the best course of action would be to call 3-1-1 and report the vehicles often as "abandoned." As of right now, they can't park in the same spot for over 72 hours, or they would be subject to being towed away. You could also work to implament hourly restrictions, but this only truly works if they are overnight restrictions, which doesn't always work in areas where parking is a commodity like Hollywood, Palms, Reseda, HIghland Park and most parts of the City with high density housing. The best effort is to keep track of the license plates of these vehicles and continue to call them into the 3-1-1/LADOT so they can mark them to be moved. Another recourse would be to work with the Senior Lead Officer of your area to see if they can talk to the RV-parker to see if there is a better place, perhaps, for them to park.
There are a lot of ways to address this problem in the short term while we all wait for LADOT to roll out -- citywide -- this restricted parking plan for oversized vehicles like RVs.
photo from Eleventh Earl of Mar via Flickr
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I agree that RV-livers shouldn't be able to park in high density neighborhoods, but what about long stretches of road with no homes or businesses on them? I can think of at least three examples in my immediate area where I've seen RV-livers parked that hasn't remotely caused trouble for anyone else. In the areas where this really is a problem, shouldn't they just instate plain old permit parking on the street?
The 2am-6am rule is just obnoxious. What about friends or relatives who visit from out of town and park their campers on the street overnight? They have to get a permit for their trip?
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I agree with FutureShipwreck. As an RV resident, I park my RV in places where I'm out of the way of residents, where I won't be bothering people.
If those RVs are bothering you, leave a note on their windshield. When we get one of those, we move along.
Most lifers will be respectful to you if you are respectful to them.
I noticed that one of the districts is the one that includes Venice Beach. This is a hotbed for RVs...it's going to be a tough to get all those guys to move out of there...which will only push them into other districts that do allow it.
Most of these guys can't afford traditional housing, some are in tough life situations (addictions, etc) that have them stuck there.
Let's help them out, rather than push them out.
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San Francisco and the railroad had a TON of RV homeless living on Southern Pacific property/city streets back in in 2002. They uprooted them. Rightfully so, I highly doubt the majority of these people are pumping their tanks into the proper stations. I would imagine (as was the case in San Francisco), that these people are just letting their sewage tanks run into the gutter which empties into the ocean.
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As the person who initially asked the question, I want to both thank LAist for the in-depth research and defend myself. The RVs living on my street are not 'friends and family,' they are 'lifers,' many of them, that leave their trash and crime a few feet from my front door. They soak up most of the available street parking, 2 or 3 spots at a time and they're a horrible eyesore in an otherwise family-friendly hood. I have no problem with people living in RVs, just not in such quantities and in my neighborhood.
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Are they taking up too many parking spaces? Or does "Zach" want them out only because they are "homeless?"
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Both.
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Why don't you post your address and I'll have them all move to your street? It's easy to be a message board hypocrite when you can't see 8 RVs from your driveway.
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Buddy, I don't know where you're getting the idea that Gower south of Sunset is "otherwise family friendly." If you take out the RV's, you'll only make the crackheads and prostitutes that much more visible.
If you don't want to end up wasting what will become much of your life removing "undesirables" from your neighborhood, then move to a more desirable neighborhood, or learn to deal with it.
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Also - question - who was living in that area first - you or the RV's?
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Great discussion of a very serious topic. But, first things first. It's against the law.
LAMC SEC. 85.02. USE OF STREETS AND PUBLIC PARKING LOTS FOR HABITATION.
No person shall use a vehicle parked or standing upon any City street. or upon any parking lot owned by the City of Los Angeles and under the control of the City of Los Angeles or under control of the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors. as living quarters either overnight, day-by-day, or otherwise. (Title and Section Amended by Ord. No. 158,219, Eff. 9/19/83.)
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Thank you Stephen for the LAMC.
However, I need to point out to everyone that this proposed law is another tool for fighting the parking and storage of RVs, not necessarily the living in them part, which is hard to enforce.
And the savvy who store them keep moving them around every 72 hours to avoid towing.
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To respond to saltmine: I was there first. When we first moved to the area, there were no visible RVs but now they are everywhere. Perhaps some other hard-working neighborhood kicked them out. And as for the 'move to a more desirable neighborhood' comment, I love my neighborhood and the RV blight is the only problem I have with it. I feel it's only right to do my best to try to correct that.
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Understandable. If my neighborhood changed for the worse while I was living there, I'd be annoyed too.
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Understandable. If my neighborhood changed for the worse while I was living there, I'd be annoyed too.