Lakewood City Council has instituted important changes to City laws which restrict the parking of recreational vehicles and travel trailers on City streets.
As of October 4, 2010, code enforcement officers will begin to take enforcement action on illegally parked RVs and travel trailers. These vehicles, if not removed, will be ticketed and towed from City streets.
Simply moving the recreational vehicle or travel trailer to a different location on the City street or within the public right-of-way does not resolve the violation. To be in compliance, the recreational vehicle or travel trailer must be removed from the City street or the public right-of-way.
City Council approved the new law that limits owners of RVs and travel trailers to park their vehicles, regardless of their length, in front of their homes for a maximum of 48 hours to load and unload the vehicles. Watch the July 12 Council meeting. Code enforcement and community services officers as well as police agents have worked for several weeks to educate RV and travel trailer owners on the provisions of the new law.
The new law provides for a no-cost permit for residents who might need a one-time extension, which could be granted only once a year. Those extensions could be for situations such as extended stays by guests using RVs during their visit to Lakewood residents. Homeowners who have such visitors may apply for a permit once each calendar year to allow an RV or travel trailer to be parked in front of their homes for a maximum of two weeks.
These provisions are designed to decrease the problems associated with long-term parking of RVs and travel trailers on City streets while accommodating the needs of RV and trailer owners.
City Council received regular complaints about the abundance of these vehicles parked on City streets. Because of the high interest in the topic, the City created an e-mail address for residents to provide their comments to City Council during the last several months. Those comments overwhelmingly favored either completely eliminating the parking of these vehicles on City streets or at least restricting the practice.
Lakewood’s parking laws already make it unlawful to park commercial vehicles or a vehicle with a trailer longer than 25 feet in front of a residence unless those vehicles are providing services to a property within 200 feet of where they are parked. Trailers, boats or other vehicles that are not self-propelled are restricted from parking in front of a residential lot for more than six hours.
RV and travel trailer owners need to know that simply moving a vehicle to a different location on the same street or another street is not permissible. Violations of the new law can result in a citation or having the vehicle removed and impounded.
For questions, please call Community Code Enforcement at 303-987-7566.
