Sebastopol City Council approves parking ordinance banning RV during daylight hours

The Sebastopol City Council on Wednesday agreed to effectively ban all RV parking on city streets during daylight hours but allow overnight parking in commercial areas.

During a special public meeting, the council approved the restrictions, which are raising alarm with some homeless advocates, in a 4-0 vote.

Councilwoman Una Glass, who expressed reservations about the new rules, abstained.

The ordinance is set to take effect on March 26.

The restrictions follow the city’s recent launch of a controversial safe parking pilot program in the north end of town for homeless people living out of their trailers and campers.

The ordinance, and the one-year “RV village” program, come largely in response to a long-standing encampment with as many as 20 vehicles on Morris Street near The Barlow commercial center.

Council members have described the moves as a necessary compromise to provide refuge for many living in their RVs on and around Morris Street while also preventing future vehicle camps.

“Lawless encampments like Morris Street had become, where residents of Sebastopol were not able to use what the rightfully should be able to, that’s difficult,” said Mayor Patrick Slayter. “I’m not in favor of having a place that becomes that unlawful encampment.”

Nearby neighbors and businesses, including The Barlow, had complained that encampment residents damaged private property, left trash in the roadway and caused other environmental, health and safety hazards.

Earlier this week, all but a handful of campers and trailers remained in the Morris Street area. Most had moved to the 18-vehicle safe parking lot at 845 Gravenstein Highway North.

A recently formed community group, Friends of Northwest Sebastopol, sued the city in January to halt the program.

The county’s last homeless count in early 2020 found 129 unhoused people in Sebastopol, up from 69 two years prior. All of them lived outdoors or in vehicles.

When the ordinance takes effect next month, it will prohibit all recreational vehicles — meaning a “motor home, travel trailer, truck camper, camping trailer, or other vehicle or trailer” — from parking on city streets in residential neighborhoods at any time.

It will also:

• Bar parking in commercial or industrial areas between 7:30 a.m. and 10 p.m.
• Prevent parking large vehicles in public parks or city-owned parking lots unless a person is “conducting city-related business during business hours at the location”;
• Prohibit parking such vehicles less than 30 feet from the corner of any street, so as to not block visibility on roadways.

Violations could result in citations, towing or both.

The ordinance does not apply to commercial vehicles. It also allows a 48-hour parking exception for mechanical breakdowns and was amended to permit a “homeowner, tenant, or out-of-town visitor” to park in front of a specific residence for 72 hours.

On Wednesday, Councilwoman Glass, declined to vote on the measure, citing concerns about the 72-hour limit being too short, as well as a “threat of litigation” over the ordinance.

Similar RV parking laws in Los Angeles and Mountain View are currently being challenged in federal court.

“This ordinance is full of unintended consequences and just has some issues,” she said. “I am not against doing something, but I think there are problems within this ordinance.”

Sebastopol Police Chief Kevin Kilgore said that when it comes to the 72-hour RV parking limits, officers would use “discretion” and “common sense” in how they enforce that part of the ordinance.

Homeless advocates, meanwhile, say the law is punitive and cruel.

“It’s the criminalization of homelessness,” Margaret DeMatteo, housing policy attorney with Legal Aid of Sonoma County told The Press Democrat this week.

In addition to infringing on homeless peoples’ constitutional protections against excessive punishment, DeMatteo said the ordinance would be a violation of a 2018 federal court decision that effectively prohibits cities in western states from enforcing no-camping ordinances on most public property without first offering homeless people shelter.

City officials have said the ordinance is in line with the court ruling because it allows for overnight parking in some parts of the city.

You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian at ethan.varian@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian