By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
A series of citations for residents parking their recreational vehicles (RV) illegally caused a few citizens to question the City of Great Bend's ordinance on what is allowed and what is not.
Following a few residents voicing a complaint over citations at the Nov. 2 meeting, the Great Bend City Council conducted a work session Nov. 16 to consider rewording the city ordinance.
Deemed unsightly, RVs are not allowed to be parked in front of the house or street except to load or unload the vehicle. Citizens have no more than 48 hours to have the RV parked in their driveway to prepare or clean their vehicle.
Mike Hill, who lives on Broadway Avenue, told
the governing body it takes him longer than two days to clean his RV from a
long trip.
"If we come back from a long trip, it takes us longer than 48 hours to clean the RV," said Hill. "We have to clean, we have breakdowns, need to take it to the shop and bring it back to the house."
Recreational vehicles are allowed to be parked in garages or behind the house.
The RVs are not supposed to stick out past the front of the house, but
determining the exact ‘front’ for each house was confusing.
In the end, the
City Council decided to leave most the
ordinance alone except for changing the definition of an RV (dimensions) and possibly
extending the length of time an RV can be parked in front of your house to
three days a week.
"If you're going to spend $60,000 on an RV, you need to take some responsibility for that and don't tell me you did not know the ordinances," said Councilmember Lindsey Krom-Craven. "If I'm going to buy a vehicle, I'm going to know what my tags and taxes are before I spend that money."
City Administrator Kendal Francis told the City Council he would work on making
the terminology in the ordinance clearer and possibly make the changes public
before sending it back to the governing body to vote on.
Below is the current city ordinance regarding RV parking...
15.52.040 -Recreationalvehicles—Permitted parking.
"No recreational vehicle of any kind shall be parked on that portion of the lot between the front of the house and the street, including the driveway, at any time for any purpose except for loading and unloading preparatory to taking a trip, or for cleaning after a trip. The parking of a recreational vehicle for such purposes only shall be allowed for a period of not to exceed two days per week. Recreational vehicles may be parked within garages or back of the front of the house at any time."