By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Recreational vehicles (RV) and how they’re parked on properties took up roughly 15 minutes of Monday’s Great Bend City Council meeting, as four citizens voiced their concerns on violations they received from the city.
RVs are not allowed to be parked in front of the house or street, including the driveway, at any time except to load or unload for a trip, or for cleaning. The main reason for this ordinance is because it was determined having RVs parked in driveways was unsightly.
Great Bend citizen Josh Blankenship was
cited last week because his RV parked along the side of his home was sticking out
approximately 7.5 feet in front of his house.
"I'm a big private property person, so hearing that other people did not like it...there is some merit to that, but I don't think that is a reason to have an ordinance that bans all of them," said Blankenship.
The City Council, including councilmember Dana Dawson, agreed the city should revisit the wording of the current ordinance on what is allowed and what is not, but there was nothing they could do about the current citation.
"We want to relook at this but we can't make a quick decision here," said Dawson. "It is kind of like if you get a speeding ticket in a 45 mph speed zone but we're going to discuss maybe upping it to 55 mph next month, do you get off from paying that ticket until we think about changing it?"
City ordinance 15.52.040 states the parking of a recreational vehicle to load,
unload or clean shall be allowed for no longer than two days per week.
Blankenship
and the other citizens were given 10 days to remedy the violation of illegally
having their RVs parked on their property. The residents were wanting the City
Council to hold off on any violations until after the work session, but City
Attorney Bob Suelter and the governing body determined this is still currently
a violation regardless if the wording is changed in the future.
"That is what a work session is for, to study the ordinance and decide what to do with it," said Suelter. "I don't know where the 10 days came from. As bad as it sounds, it is a public law and we could have given a ticket right away. We gave them a warning to move it off."
Blankenship questioned the wording on the last sentence of the ordinance that
reads, “Recreational vehicles may be parked within garages or back of the front
of the house at any time.”
The City Council will schedule a future work session for the purpose of
revisiting code enforcement and RV parking.