Quick Take
The Watsonville City Council has approved changes to a local law that could ban RVs and semitrucks from parking along public streets citywide. The ordinance is slated for a second hearing Feb. 10 before being formally adopted.
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Elected officials in Watsonville are moving forward with a ban on the parking of oversized vehicles on public streets citywide.
The changes are in response to complaints from residents and local business owners about trailers, recreational vehicles and semitrucks parked on city streets for long periods of time, leading to safety concerns, said Watsonville Police Capt. Mish Radich.
Councilmember Vanessa Quiroz-Carter was the lone opposing vote on the Watsonville City Council, and the ordinance will get a second hearing on Feb. 10 before it is formally adopted and becomes law. It would ban oversized vehicles or trailers that are more than 8 feet tall, more than 8.5 feet wide, more than 22 feet long or more than 10,000 pounds from parking on city streets — including alleys and city-owned parking lots.
“This is to deal with the overflux of these vehicles coming down from Santa Cruz,” said Councilmember Jimmy Dutra during the council’s Jan. 13 meeting. In 2023, the City of Santa Cruz adopted a similar ordinance, primarily targeting the city’s Westside and coastal areas. Dutra added he believes that Watsonville is suffering the consequences of other jurisdictions’ laws and people are moving their vehicles south to find free parking.
Quiroz-Carter brought up concerns to Radich and Jaime Rodriguez, a contracted traffic engineer, about whether the ordinance is targeting residents experiencing homelessness. “I can’t support this if we can’t provide safe overnight vehicle parking,” she said.
Currently, the city does not have designated “safe parking” zones, which provide a designated, secure location for unhoused residents to park their cars overnight, said Radich. Some churches in the city do offer overnight parking; however, they do not allow bigger vehicles like RVs and trailers, he said.
Rodriguez told city officials the ordinance is not meant to target people living in their cars or trailers. “Our intention is to really clean up the city and make sure the roads are safe for everybody,” he said.
He added that the biggest concerns for the oversized vehicles on city streets are that they can create obstructions, such as blocking sightlines, for other drivers and for pedestrians. Rodriguez said the larger vehicles block gutters and make it harder for street sweepers to clear up trash, which could lead to flooding. “These oversized vehicles really are an issue both day and night, and they are an issue for all districts in the city,” he said.
The ordinance will make exemptions for vehicles that are wheelchair-accessible, commercial vans or trucks actively loading or unloading, vehicles owned by authorities and RVs that have daily parking permits for Pinto Lake City Park.
“We have fleets of larger commercial trucks that park in certain areas, and in all honesty, I think parking for the ordinary person in the residential areas is going to be helped by this, not hindered by it,” said Councilmember Ari Parker.
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