Starting on Thursday, RVs and trailers will no longer be allowed to park in McMinnville city parks. This includes all recreational vehicles, trailers, and towed vehicles from city parks.
McMinnville Parks and Recreation Director Susan Muir shared a city memo that says city parks have been experiencing an increase in RVs and trailers in parking lots. They have been seen most recently in East Wortman and Joe Dancer Park.
The memo estimates that the vehicles gathering during open park hours at Joe Dancer Park have doubled and "maybe tripled" since last fall.
Under the existing parks code, the city claims they have the authority to ban anything other than passenger vehicles as defined by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).
The police chief, Parks and Recreation Department, and Public Works Department have all been receiving complaints from people feeling unsafe in parks due to “abandoned-looking recreational vehicles spread through the park.”
“A couple of vehicles were towed or brought into a park that was sort of abandoned and those are hazards for us. We don’t want those kinds of vehicles in our parks," Muir told KATU News.
“We started watching it about a year ago and we noticed that the numbers were increasing and as the weather turns nice and our amazing sports leagues roll out in the springtime, we bring much more people to the park and more vehicles," said Muir.
Muir said the parks aren’t designed to accommodate oversized vehicles, as many of them don’t fit in one parking spot and are too long to fit in parking stalls. The accumulation of stationary RVs and trailers is therefore preventing the parking lots from being used for their intended purpose - availability for people going to parks during daytime hours for recreation and city programs.
McMinnville is experiencing some of the largest registration numbers for youth programs that they have seen in over 20 years. This is increasing the need for parking spots, the city memo said.
KATU News asked Muir if this new policy is connected to an Oregon state law that requires all cities to update their camping ordinances by July 1. House Bill 3115 provides guidelines on time, place, and manner for people camping in public, as well as making sure people have someplace else to go.
“This is not connected to the state law changes related to legal camping. It’s simply about keeping large vehicles and perceptions about public safety and maneuvering space in parking lots that weren’t designed for large vehicles," Muir said. "It will apply to all large vehicles including boat trailers, RVs, work trailers, etc. The timing relates to our sports seasons when large crowds come to our parks.”
KATU News asked Muir if there were other people bringing their large vehicles to the park that aren’t homeless or if the city was seeing more people experiencing homelessness bring in large vehicles.
"We try and welcome everybody to the parks and so we really don’t put that filter on it. It was more about the vehicles," she said.
A "camping is prohibited" notice was placed on the RV Brian Edington hangs out in during the day with friends he's made while being homeless for the last year. The RV is parked on Marsh Lane just up the street from Joe Dancer Park.
“As of right now, we’re forced to park on city streets and we have no more than 72 hours in one place and then we have to move," Edington said.
His typical routine would be to move the RV from the street to the park and spend the day where he has access to restrooms. Edington feels like the city is trying to push people experiencing homelessness further out.
“It’s definitely been a lot of targeting of certain individuals and groups namely us and where we can and cannot exist in this town," he said. “A lot of us do work and have jobs and are giving it our best shot.”
However, parkgoers see the RV ban as a good move by the city. Gene Baty says the RVs and trailers he sees are not drivable and are falling apart.
“When you drive through here there will be 20-25 vehicles in the park until Monday. This is a good step," Baty said. “There are kids playing sports out here and lots of parents are out here it’s a very active place but it would be better for the city to come up with an alternative for the people to park their RVs."
Other than city maintenance vehicles or buses transporting children, sports teams, or associated city programs, only vehicles meeting ODOT's definition of "passenger vehicle" are allowed in parks.
The memo says the McMinnville Police Department will handle any impacts that would push RVs or other vehicles out into right-of-ways or private property in the same manner that is currently being enforced, which is through the camping and parking ordinances.
The rights of way and street parking remain available for parking that falls in compliance with the city’s camping ordinance.
The memo added that the City of McMinnville is "extremely limited under case law and state rules to further restrict street parking within the rights of ways when it comes to camping."