The city of Mountain View may see some headway on its rollout of a safe parking program this Wednesday, Sept. 4, when the Environmental Planning Commission lays out its recommendations for an ordinance on oversized vehicles like RVs.
At the June 11 meeting, the City Council moved forward with a ban to restrict parking of oversized vehicles, defined as any vehicle over 7 feet high, 7 feet wide and 22 feet in length, from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. every night, starting Jan. 1, 2020.
The city has simultaneously sought to identify sanctioned parking spaces for the over 200 RVs and motorhomes serving as housing that would be displaced by the ban.
Currently, up to 22 safe parking spaces are available in Mountain View, across three sites at faith-based properties and a council-approved temporary site on Terra Bella Avenue.
The city has also approved the use of two city-owned lots, one at Shoreline Amphitheater and another at a Valley Transit Authority lot on Pioneer Way and Evelyn Avenue.
Those two sites could accommodate another 60 vehicles, following the EPC’s recommendations to limit the capacity of each safe parking lot to 30.
The EPC’s drafted ordinance includes previous provisions that were reviewed by the council in June. Among those are requirements for general health and safety regulations, prohibition of outdoor modified cooking equipment or fires, and a prohibition on vehicles that leak sewage.
Notably, the ordinance also stipulates that motorhome dwellers may only use the lots from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., requiring inhabitants to move their vehicle during the day.
The EPC’s plan also advises some modifications, such as removing its 50% capacity limit on the use of striped parking areas and requiring applicants to comply with a stormwater pollution clean-up plan to minimize impacts of litter and spills to the water quality.
Interested members of the public can attend the Sept. 4 meeting, held at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at 500 Castro St.
Comments
Old Mountain View
on Sep 2, 2019 at 8:59 pm
on Sep 2, 2019 at 8:59 pm
Glad to see some actions from the council. Hope they can listen to the people and someday the RV is fully banned. Ppl are not supposed to live on the street and those RVs can cause a lot of environmental and safety problems for our local residents.
Registered user
Old Mountain View
on Sep 2, 2019 at 10:32 pm
Registered user
on Sep 2, 2019 at 10:32 pm
The second paragraph of this article is misleading. On June 11 the Council directed staff to come back with proposed language that would ban overnight parking by oversized vehicles on city streets. Council would have to approve such language on September 24 and again on either October 1 or October 15. The Mountain View Housing Justice Coalition plans to collect voters' signatures on a referendum petition that would keep the ban from taking effect, unless and until approved by Mountain View voters.
Cuesta Park
on Sep 3, 2019 at 7:44 am
on Sep 3, 2019 at 7:44 am
[Post removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]
Shoreline West
on Sep 3, 2019 at 8:56 am
on Sep 3, 2019 at 8:56 am
I disagree with Lennie on this issue but probably disagree with Lennie's troll on many more, haha.
Glad to see the changes going into effect. This combined with the removal of the recycling centers will really benefit neighborhoods.
Old Mountain View
on Sep 3, 2019 at 9:25 am
on Sep 3, 2019 at 9:25 am
[Post removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]
Registered user
Old Mountain View
on Sep 4, 2019 at 9:43 am
Registered user
on Sep 4, 2019 at 9:43 am
I disagree with the provision that the RVs must be moved every day. Where are these people supposed to park their homes between 7am and 7pm?
Registered user
Old Mountain View
on Sep 4, 2019 at 1:18 pm
Registered user
on Sep 4, 2019 at 1:18 pm
I'm dismayed to see that our city's reaction to a problem which it created is to ban a symptom of it.
People don't live in RV's because it's a good living arrangement, but because it's the least bad choice. RV's don't have continuously working plumbing, toilets, electricity. You have to empty waste tanks, fill water tanks, etc. It's a giant hassle.
People go through this hassle because housing is so expensive here due to the massive jobs and housing imbalance. We need affordable housing for people who want to live here. Rent control won't achieve that, subsidized housing won't achieve that, but more housing stock eventually would.
I can't understand how people who already own property in Mountain View can be so vocally opposed to building more housing. You're already "in", don't sabotage other people from attaining what you've got. Bay Area population is growing due to tremendous job opportunities here, and people are coming from all over the country for the jobs, but we, the residents, oppose additional housing. Cities change over time, things get denser as population increases, and that brings its own problems, but creating a housing shortage is a far worse issue, and creates other issues, such as RV's clogging up the streets and some even leaking sewage on the street.