RV owners being unfairly run over

Bob Polkow

The thousands of recreational vehicle owners in Huntington Beach are

going to be presented an ordinance prepared not by our city staff or

traffic engineers, but by our Huntington Beach chief of police,

Kenneth Small.

It seems the 25-year-old ordinance that calls motor homes 25 feet

or longer “oversize vehicles” and limits their parking in one spot

longer than 24 hours illegal is suddenly “too difficult” to enforce,

and the chief wants to call, for our city, any RV longer than 20 feet

“oversize.”

In my opinion, the 25-foot determination conflicts with the

California Vehicle Code, but those of us who have RVs this size have

been living with this local interpretation without complaint, even

though it is selective harassment as the vehicle code states that a

“house car,” as motor homes are called in the code, should be treated

the same as “passenger” vehicles, if not exceeding 40 feet in length

and 102 inches in width.

At first, the ordinance was to be presented to the City Council

Jan. 18, but after supposedly laboring for a year to draft the new

ordinance, the chief called it off.

He probably got word that the law-abiding RV owners were about to

descend on City Hall with determination to protect their rights as

outlined in the vehicle code.

The state issues our RV licenses as well as our driver’s licenses.

Local authorities, in my opinion, are crossing the line to contradict

the state, which has proprietary right as stated in the vehicle code.

The ordinance, Small says, is being drastically changed after

laboring over it for a full year and will not be presented for

consideration until Feb. 22, coincidentally the day after the long

Presidents Day holiday, when many RV owners will be out of town or

just returning and further hampered by the fact that we have no idea

what the revised ordinance does to our rights.

The vehicle code is minutely detailed and deals with every

conceivable conveyance. Why are the RV owners in our city being

harassed in this matter by those we look to for protection?

I urge every RV owner who feels as I do to contact our council

members, who are voted in “at large,” and ask why our chief of police

not only cannot enforce the 25-year-old ordinance, but why the

California Vehicle Code -- so detailed in stipulations and

restrictions -- is not rigid enough.

When I moved my family to Huntington Beach, the vehicle code was

the only code that affected RVs.

The city had a local ordinance that required those who parked

their RVs on their own property to park them on a paved surface.

That was more than 30 years ago, but in 1975 those of us who had

RVs over 25 feet had to move them before a 24-hour time limit.

When this ordinance was passed, my wife inquired about the 25-foot

length and was told large commercial vehicles were using our city as

a resting stop, and the unsightly 18 wheelers had to be controlled.

Apparently they were not aware RVs had evolved into lengths

greater than 25 feet.

This selective harassment should stop. If our chief suddenly has a

new problem that can only be eliminated by a new RV ordinance, then

the new problem alone should be dealt with, not the thousands of

law-abiding RV owners, who moved to our city because of the common

sense course of using the state-prepared vehicle code.

The current 25-foot limit as applied to RVs should be rescinded,

and the 72-hour parking limit applied to passenger vehicles should

also include RVs as they are also licensed as passenger vehicles.

SOUNDING OFF BOB POLKOW is a Huntington Beach resident. To

contribute to “Sounding Off,” e-mail us at [email protected] or fax

us at (714) 966-4667.