McMinnville to get tougher on RV and cars camping on city streets
The McMinnville city council is moving ahead on closing loopholes in city ordinances and will get tougher with car campers and those living on the streets in RVS. Councilers echoed the sentiments of councilor Kelly Minke in their concern for residents concerned about health and safety issues and fears of declining property values. Current McMinnville ordinance has provided several loopholes. One of which requires a city ordinance officer to set and watch an RV for four hours before it can be deemed someone is living there. Once that hurdle is crossed, an RV can be moved 300 feet and the clock starts all over again. Owners have to be given 72 hours of notification time before a second 144 hour clock starts to run, after which the RV or vehicle can be towed. But if the vehicle is moved just 300 feet both clocks start all over again.
City council wants to move fairly quickly on removing those loopholes. Councilors seem to want to move that to a 24 hour clock and remove the 300 foot restart clause. City staff will come up with a stricter ordinance and return to council for adoption.
Mayor Scott Hill says the city will be moving quicker than it has been recently in making these changes. This drew the applause of more than a dozen citizens who have been regularly attending these meetings and have expressed dissatisfaction with the speed at which the city has been moving.
However, councilors are not without compassion. They still want to look at a longer term approach to give those who have fallen on hard times some options. they are looking at a program in Eugene/Springfield in which an RV owner can be allowed to park on designated property for up to 90 days while they make other arrangements. That program conceivably would set up certain behavior requirements and mandate that a local party or other organization other than police monitor them for compliance. The council may have someone experienced with the program from Eugene come and talk to them about their efforts.
