city by-laws

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Roary60

Member
Joined
May 17, 2011
Posts
8
Is there any kind of a movement to try and stop cities and or municipalities from making it against the law to sleep in a Vehicle
 
How would you propose coordinating the effort across the 19,354 cities in the US?
 
Is there any kind of a movement to try and stop cities and or municipalities from making it against the law to sleep in a Vehicle

In the area of Florida where our winter home is, I think you will find sentiment is just the opposite, with ever strengthening, broad based support for tighter restrictions. Stealth campers are pretty much frowned upon in all kinds of communities here, and as the owner of commercial property victimized more than once, I would certainly not support such a movement.
 
The problem with sleepers in vehicles is not so much RVers as the homelsss who may wish to sleep in their car.. You see, the cities do not wish to admit they have homeless as this makes them look bad,  After all there are folks who feel the government should be doing something about the homeless (Specifically providing shelter) so the goverment DOES do something about the homeless (Pass laws making it criminal to be homelss so they can toss you out of town into the county jail) .

See,  This is an example of "Be careful of what you ask for, Least you receive it"

You ask the government to do something for the homeless, and they do, they make homelessness a crime and toss 'em in the slammer.

And trust me you do NOT want my true opinion of this,  (It would melt your monitor for sure!!!).
 
If any city in the Bakken Oil Field of NW Nordakota and NE/E Montana ever tried to pass that law a good portion of the oil field workers would end up in jail and there would be no place to house them.

And most of the above mentioned people have a decent paying job.

The one thing that the cities and towns are trying to combat is the influx of RV's that are not at an established campground and/or mobile home lot, but then that is a different story than just sleeping in a vehicle, or even stopping at the local Wally World/Truck Stop for one night of rest in the parking lot while traveling.

Oly
 
All they do out here in Idaho is leave the city for 1-2 miles and camp out legally. Like for example the city of Riggins, ID is only 1/4 mile wide and 1 mile long so if you leave Riggins, ID city limits 1 miles later you back in National Forest and legal to stay. Happens all the time. Heck we have them camping in the turn out across the road from the house during fishing season.

But as for camping within the city you now got a new problem.
 
Olys45 said:
If any city in the Bakken Oil Field of NW Nordakota and NE/E Montana ever tried to pass that law a good portion of the oil field workers would end up in jail and there would be no place to house them.

Amen to that.  I spent May thru Nov 2011 there and probably hired at least two dozen drivers who were sleeping in their cars out of the Walmart and Albertsons parking lots.

Banning camping in RV's etc. in commercial parking lots is the job of the cities to decide what's in the best interest of their communities.  For example:  In Cody Wyoming there is no such ordinance.  When Walmart opened many years ago they tried to ban camping in parking lots.  Good Sam Club as well as others threatened to endorse a boycott of Cody and the city council folded.  We have two large well appointed RV parks in town as well as a couple of other not so nice ones.  Our private campgrounds almost never hit 100% occupancy in the summer yet you will find 5th wheels, travel trailers and motorhomes set up in the Walmart parking lot for days on end while they tour Yellowstone and the surrounding area.  This takes money directly out of the pockets of local business folks and thier employees.

By the way, our destination for tonite will be a Walmart parking lot so I'm not against Walmart camping in any way shape or form, but overnite should be the extent of it.
 
As it happens I think that the best folks to decide what is proper in a Wal-mart lot is .. Well, Wal-mart, when it comes to camping.

Now when it comes to car-jacking, homicide and the like.. I have no problem with Wal-Mart inviting the city to come in and investigate,,,, But if you park in a no parking, Wal-mart has to invite the police in and complain before they can ticket, For them to come onto private property and ticket without an invite.. Not good.

Oh and for OLYS45,, Yes, that kind of thing is exactly what I'm talking about, though I do support no smoking laws,, But the other things cities do to we.., Solve the homeless problem by forcign them to move elsewhere..  I consider to be more or less UNAMERICAN.. I mean "Give me your tired, your .." Well you knwo the quote.

The government should care for them, not kick them when they are down,  Epically folks like the Vet in the story.

 
Roary60,

I wouldn't exactly call it a "movement" because in San Diego, CA, where I've been a police officer for 31 years, we've had an "Illegal Lodging" law for decades (no sleeping overnight in vehicles). If anything, I've noticed more and more people complaining about RVs and other vehicles that people are sleeping in, parked on their streets.

In many large cities, and in in some of the smaller cities that surround them, it's not unusual for the city "leaders" to pass laws making it illegal to sleep in vehicles. Such laws are often called Municipal Code violations, and are just as binding as Penal Code violations. The laws are usually put in place, because citizens begin to complain about more and more people living on the streets in their cars.

Kev
 
I have to privately smile when I read the comments such as here. What comes around, comes around.

As is known, I am a cattle rancher and a long time RVer. I have noticed that from time to time, in fact often,  I find someone camped on some of our property here in the Mountains of Colorado, and almost always from some town or city. Since our privatly owned ranch land is mostly mountain land and there are no buildings in sight of 99 percent, city people usually think that it is OK to just drive on, and set up a camp. And rarely do they ask permission. Almost never in fact. They just pull off the county road in a night grassy spot along a creek, with some trees, and set up camp.

Yet, it seems to be getting more common that when my wife and I arrive in a town or city, we find that it is frowned upon for us to park on the side of a public street even if we are out of weay of traffic. Fortunately We almost always find parking overnight at a Wal Mart, a truck stop, and sometimes even in a city park. But not on a public, low traveled street. Recetnly we pulled off hte highway onto a side street in a small town, parked off the highway around the corner from a local restaurant to go in for lunch. When we returned in less than an hour, there was a parking ticket on our truck stating, "No campers parking permitted". Naturally, although we travel through that town 4 or 5 times each year, we will never stop or do business there again.

So long as the campers on our land have considerqation, do not cause damage, and do lot leave trash, I usually  just stop and visit with them and try to make friends. But, I sometimes privately wonder what they would do if I stopped and camped in front of their property in town, even on a public street.
 
Rancher Will I appreciate that you choose to share the beautiful place where you live with others who are responsible campers.  Years ago in my younger days it was common for me to pull my motorcycle off the two lane and through a gate.  I found some great places to camp and growing up in Wyoming knew that my actions on somebody elses land would not go un-noticed, pack it in, pack it out and close that gate!!!

Yesterday evening after a grueling 300 mile day we opted to stop at a Walmart in Casa Grande AZ.  The first thing we see is a sign saying don't even think about it or you'll get towed.  Plan B took us a little out of route but landed us in Coolidge where there is a designated flat spot just for our purposes.  Better yet it's off the interstate so at least part of todays run will be done away from the traffic and on US 87 for a while to put us back on route.
 
We keep a log in our RV of all our travels, cities and communities that are friendly get our business Food, Fuel, and any other supplies as they put out the welcome mat for us. The others get mention when discussing good places to stop with other RVers 
 
Roray that is a good idea... Log the places you visit,,, And rate them "Good/Bad/Indifferent"

If a city, county or state is "Anti-RV" note it as "Bad"

If they welcome your money with open cash registers (ER,. Welcome you with open arems) Good.

If they don't seem to care,  Indifferent.

I suspect if more of us did that, and shared..... There would be a few cities that might re-think an ord or several.

OF course you can put a file in a public place, say "Dropbox" (www.dropbox.com) and update it on your computer. ONLY you can change it, but anyone can read it. (IF I understand how the public folder there works)  I have a couple photos in my dropbox public folder.
 
Since I use a Smart Phone (sic) for navigation I have a google map set up specifically for our waypoints which includes boondock or KOA (Kamping On Ashpalt) spots.

Our destination last nite was Ft. Stockton TX but my eyes were bigger than my stomach so to speak and 650 miles wasn't gonna happen.  Ft. Stockkton has a great Walmart there but I pulled the plug in Van Horn instead. The problem is that Van Horn is definitely not RV friendly, I've read reviews that state that folks have received tickets in the mail upon their return home for violating the no camping laws.  Consequently we set up in a real KOA last nite and it was $38 well spent if nothing more than for the security it provided being so close to the Mexican border and the interstate.  It does on the other hand irritate me to spend money for nothing more than a flat spot and to plug in my shore line.

By the way, we found out that there is nothing in Sierra Blanca TX other than ruins AND if you get off on the I-10 business loop eastbound there you will be on a very narrow frontage road for over 20 miles before you can even think about getting back on I-10, no fun in the dark.
 
One of the down-sides of wal-marting and Flying-J-ing is that I tend to patronize the establishment when I use their lot... Now Wal-mart we shop for needs, but at the J it's often dinner and/or breakfast.. Back when I could afford it that is (Now days it's fuel) and perhaps a large coffee)  Back when I had money,,, Well, I'd have spent closer to 40 in the restaurant at a J.. Thus making the CG cheaper.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
131,749
Posts
1,384,210
Members
137,520
Latest member
jeep3501
Back
Top Bottom