Goleta Delays Decision on RV Parking

The plan to regulate parking of oversized vehicles in the City of Goleta will undergo even more tweaking, as the City Council on Tuesday night voted in favor of sending the proposed ordinance back for revisions rather than adopting it outright. The decision was in response to community concerns that the new rules — which have been in development for more than a year, as some Goleta streets are plagued with stagnant big rigs, people sleeping in their RVs, and other parking abuse of public right of ways — would hurt those who are otherwise following the law.

The ordinance, as proposed, would have prohibited the parking of RVs, boats, trailers, and other large vehicles on public streets unless a special permit was obtained that would allow such parking so long as “active” loading was underway.

“Why are we going to penalize those people who are obeying the law?” asked Councilmember Roger Aceves, who was afraid that the folks who pay for outside storage but then have to load up their vehicles in the street would be unfairly targeted by the law. “Let’s deal with the problem vehicles and not penalize everybody.”

Though the council had voted 4 to 1 in favor of the first reading of the ordinance just a couple weeks ago, this time Aceves’s opposition was joined by Mayor Margaret Connell as well as Councilmembers Paula Perotte and Ed Easton. Only Councilmember Michael Bennett was irked by the call for revisions, as he’s been personally working on the rules during his time on the city’s ordinance committee. Speaking from his experience, he explained, “There is no perfect ordinance and there are no perfect answers to all the issues that have been raised.”

The issue will be picked up by the ordinance committee for revisions at a later date.