CYPRESS : RV Parking Ban Gets Final Approval

Despite last-minute pleas from recreational vehicle owners, the City Council this week gave final approval to an ordinance that bans the parking of RVs on city streets.

The new ordinance forbids the parking of large vehicles on city streets unless the owner gets special permission from the Police Department. Under the ordinance, residents can park an RV or other large vehicle for 48 hours but only if they are preparing to leave or are unloading from a trip.

Permits to park beyond the two-day limit are allowed under special circumstances, including if the vehicle is the sole source of transportation.

“We are trying our best to adopt a friendly ordinance,” Mayor Richard Partin said in response to the litany of complaints filed by RV owners. “The good citizens of the city of Cypress won’t even know this ordinance exists.”

The action comes more than a year after the issue was brought to the council’s attention by disgruntled residents living next door to RV owners. Throughout this time, the ordinance has taken many forms. At one point it was sent to the Traffic Commission for restructuring and was even being considered a potential ballot measure.

However, RV owners did not begin complaining about the ban until the last several council meetings. They said that the ordinance unfairly singled them out and asked for more lenient, not tighter, restrictions, which the council rejected Monday night.

The new law will take effect within the next six months.