This is what camping used to look like

You can park your ginormous RV in front of your house now, for at least 48 hours;

And the owners of recreational vehicles also will be allowed to park those vehicles in their driveways for up to 48 hours.

While I don’t understand the concept of an RV unless you are traveling with Willie Nelson’s concert tour, I will defend property owners on this one. As long as your vehicle is entirely on your property, that you own, and pay property taxes on, there should be no restrictions on it. It’s silly and goes against property rights. But my other argument is, that if you can afford one of these monstrosities, you should be able to afford to store it properly. It reminds of something I said about golfers bitching about green fees, if you can’t afford them you should take up a less expensive hobby, like lawn darts. It seems these days everyone wants to be king shit even if they can’t afford the shit.

6 Thoughts on “What ever happened to ‘Roughing it’

  1. Costner on March 8, 2011 at 12:20 pm said:

    I’m torn on this one – on one hand I can see your point about since you pay the taxes you should be able to do what you wish, because obviously that is one of the benefits of ownership rather than renting. Provided people aren’t in a planned community where they have agreed to a certain lifestyle, and provided their actions don’t directly impact others in a negative manner there shouldn’t be a problem.

    However on the flip side allowing RVs to sit around 365 days a year leads to people having their 18-wheelers parked in their driveways and dump trucks and tow trucks and F350 duallys with their 35ft enclosed triple axle trailers with their “race cars” in the back all wedged onto their property. There comes a point where it becomes more like commercial property than residential and although I realize it sounds like a slippery slope fallacy, I’m not sure where you can really draw the distinction between an RV and a tractor trailer rig with a sleeper cab.

    I think the city found a nice balance – 48 hours is enough to ensure people have time to pack up for their excusion and enough time to unpack when they return, but it isn’t so long as to allow cousin Eddie to set up shop in the driveway or for the fifth wheel camper on the side of the house to serve as an addition to the house.

    Don’t say it doesn’t happen either, because a relative of mine had a neighbor who had three extended family members living in a travel trailer in his driveway for around two to three months before someone finally called in to complain with the city. Granted this same guy had one of those PODS in his driveway for a year because his garage had been converted into living space also. Just goes to show when you draft such regulations they need to factor in the worst common denominator.

    If people wish to live in a trailer park by all means I support that decision, but the area of town needs to be zoned for temporary housing and trailers. People in other residential areas shouldn’t be subjected to others abusing the right to own and keep a mobile housing structure or RV on their property.

  2. l3wis on March 8, 2011 at 2:29 pm said:

    “However on the flip side allowing RVs to sit around 365 days a year leads to people having their 18-wheelers parked in their driveways and dump trucks and tow trucks and F350 duallys with their 35ft enclosed triple axle trailers with their “race cars” in the back all wedged onto their property.”

    Alot of those provisions are still in the ordinance.

  3. Costner on March 8, 2011 at 2:55 pm said:

    Yea I know, but that was what I meant by slippery slope. Where do we draw the line? Someone, somewhere will not like the line either way.

    I think the 48 hour rule is realistic and fair, but diehard RVers might hate it, and anyone who wants to store their other big commercial vehicle might complain too. No easy answer on this one.

  4. l3wis on March 8, 2011 at 4:11 pm said:

    Another good reason why we should tax the shit out of those things.

  5. Joan on March 9, 2011 at 7:32 pm said:

    When I was married my now “ex” would borrow a RV from a friend for a week. It would be parked in our driveway the day before for loading and then at the end of the week for another day while I unloaded it and made sure it was clean. For those brief periods of time having it parked there made me feel claustrophobic and the only view that it blocked was the next door neighbors house.

  6. l3wis on March 9, 2011 at 9:40 pm said:

    They are silly vehicles.

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