BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto City Council tonight (Oct. 19) approved an expanded ban on RVs parking in residential neighborhoods, despite a push from residents and business owners for the city to go further.
Council voted 6-1 to ban RVs within 100 feet of any home from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. The city will put up signs about the ban at 50 entrances to the city for $140,000, City Manager Ed Shikada said in a report for council.
Councilman Ed Lauing voted against the expanded ban because he wanted to see a map of affected areas and to discuss a ban further than 100 feet.
Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce Charlie Weidanz said the expanded ban will push RV dwellers further into business areas.
“Our long-term economic stability relies on keeping our commercial districts competitive, accessible and vibrant,” he told council tonight.
Resident Winter Dellenbach said Weidanz should ask the chamber’s members to provide RV parking outside their businesses. She compared the signs coming to the entrances to Palo Alto to “sundown towns,” or all-white cities that had signs telling Black and Mexican residents to leave by sunset.
“It’s not a good look for our city,” she said.
The city’s current RV ban goes from 2 to 6 a.m. and depends on the zoning, or the designation of what can get built on a property.
Neighborhoods that are zoned for only residential developments have an RV ban. But areas that are zoned for a mix of homes and businesses — like the Ventura neighborhood and around East Meadow Circle — haven’t had restrictions, resulting in a concentration of RVs there.
“That’s just unfair, and we need to address that and make a more uniform policy toward the residential areas,” Councilman Keith Reckdahl said at an Aug. 24 meeting.
Tonight’s vote will ban RVs near any homes, regardless of the zoning designation.
The city is permitting RVs on two streets at the edges of the city, but the streets have space for less than half of the city’s 130 RV dwellers.
Will expanding the ban do any good? AS a biracial white/Asian who grew up in Palo Alto I guess our family was exempt from having to “leave by sunset.” How offensive.