The hot topic at the December 3 Raymond City Council Meeting ended up being Ordinance 1883 which would changed the rules in the city regarding RV parks and campground use. Currently RV and camp users are allowed to only stay 30 days in a 6-month-period but has been unenforced. The commission has recommended allowing up to 90 days along with stipulations for new parks or campgrounds.
The ordinance was designed to meet the regulations of the Pacific County Health Department Ordinance #5 that provides regulations to safeguard public health for RV parks and campgrounds.
Raymond has three RV parks one located in Riverdale, another next to river near Pedigree Catamarans and one at the golf course. Increasing the length of stay according to the ordinance will "better accommodate the needs of people working, hunting and etc. in the area that need a temporary place to stay beyond 30 days." It also states that it would promote more "off season" use when shorter stays are rarer.
However, the ordinance would make it illegal to live permanently at an RV park or campground and cap a stay at 90 days for RVs and 14 days for tent campers. The planning commission stated in the ordinance long term occupancy in a recreational vehicle in an approved RV park and campground is not a compatible land use pattern under city policy.
Council Member Chris Halpin had some tough questions for Mayor Tony Nordin and Public Works Director Eric Weiberg on how the city planned to enforce and monitor RV park users. Both Nordin and Weiberg attended the commission meetings and Weiberg was a co-writer of the ordinance.
"So what are the plans for enforcing?" Halpin asked.
"The time limit?" Weiberg replied "There would be a log. If we ran into any issues we would look at the log. They have to check in with their driver's license. Then we would be able to go and say this person checked in and they have not checked out."
"Is there going to be a process for a regular check on those logs," Halpin asked. "Or is it going to be complaint driven?
"It could be either." Weiberg stated. "Complaint drive is how most things go though."
Much of the further discussion pertained to potential locations of parks and rules and guidelines pertaining to landscape and development. The ordinance looks to discern RV parks and campgrounds from Manufactured and Mobile Home Parks. Council Member Kaley Hanson asked if any person on the planning commission had any experience designing RV parks and suggested the city bring in someone who does. His concern was he didn't want to see everyone who has property jumping at the chance to make a profit. According to Weiberg that likelihood is very small due to areas able to be developed into RV parks or Campgrounds.
Hanson went on to express his displeasure with the clarity of the ordinance and mentioned he "didn't want to see an RV park in the middle of town" where people could stay for 90 days and just have to change spots to live another 90 days. Mentioning that it was pretty easy to get around the 90 day law of which Weiberg disagreed. "There is certain criteria in there," Weiberg stated. "You couldn't live there year round."
Council Member Pam Nogueira Maneman touched on the specific of the length of time being nearly unenforceable. She brought up her experience with the issue in south Pacific County and the fact that many who live in the parks permanently would be otherwise homeless. "Which creates an entirely more complicated issue for the city," she said. "I would be very cautious of putting any kind of time limit that they cannot be in a trailer for more than 90 days because then what are we doing?"
She continued, "It then creates a whole new expense for this person that can barely survive to relocate their RV or themself. I know the homeless number in our community is increasing and I don't want to create one more obstacle for them to succeed. We all can hope and dream these people won't be in RV's for more than 90 days. However, I think we need to take into account they may not be there by choice. The reality is people live in this situation."
Currently Pacific County has no set time limit of length of stays, and allows RV parks and campgrounds to set the limits themselves. Several parks in Raymond and South Bend currently allow long-term use and may leave some occupants out of luck once enforcement takes place.
The ordinance was voted to move on to the second reading but several council members have stated they have many questions they would like answered before they make a final decision. Prior to the ordinance the City of Raymond has done very little to enforce length of stay and RV use.
One of the major questions after the meeting was if the ordinance was going to be a stepping stone to enforce and ban use of RVs for long term use on personal property. Should the ordinance pass, long term RV users on personal property could potentially be considered an unauthorized RV park or campground and face a fine. Numerous calls for clarification to Public Works Office have been unreturned.
The other big topic of the meeting was the proposed utility rate increases for water, sewer, and garbage that also moved on to a second reading. The base rates for each would increased by varying amounts. A home with a single garbage can would see a rate increase of fifty-three cents while a home with four would be a $1.27 increase. The rates for water depends on gallons of use, but the base rate with 3000 gallons at $55.18 and the residential rate for sewer will be $90.83.
The minimum monthly utility bill will be $166.87 before taxes.
The next council meeting will be held Monday, December 17 at 7:00 p.m.