Seaside bans parking RVs and large trucks on streets; storage options for residents are few.

Dozens of RVs and pickup trucks regularly line the streets of Seaside, many parked in residential neighborhoods. Come mid-June, the majority of those vehicles will no longer be parked legally, and it’s not clear where else they can go.

On May 19, Seaside City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that bans parking RVs on city streets or parking lots, and that prohibits trucks with sideboards taller than the cab from parking longer than 24 hours.

City officials maintain the ordinance is not a response to people living in RVs on city streets, but that it was born out of repeated complaints from residents, often about safety.

“That’s really what the impetus was,” says Tim O’Halloran, Seaside’s engineer and manager of public works. “If you can’t see kids running out of a driveway, it’s really a safety issue.”

The city first began looking at the problem in 2009, and initiated a city-wide parking study to come up with solutions. The first came in 2013, with an ordinance that banned on-street parking of unhitched trailers, campers or boats.

But problems persisted.

“We’ve gotten a lot of public complaints about vehicles not moving, and blight in the neighborhood with all these commercial vehicles,” O’Halloran says. “They just kind of store this stuff in the right of way.”

And although it’s long been illegal to park a vehicle on the street for more than 72 hours, a vehicle only needs to move to avoid being cited.

“On Del Monte [Boulevard], they just march in a circle,” O’Halloran says. “If you look at the tires, they have marks all over.”

For owners of the vehicles affected by the ban, nearby storage options are scarce. O’Halloran cites Monterey RV & Boat Storage in Seaside and Saf Keep Storage in Del Rey Oaks as potential options, but the Seaside lot changed uses last fall, and Saf Keep just rented out its last space for vehicles.

The city, too, is still looking for a lot to store large vehicles that get towed after the new ordinance takes effect.

“This is a county-wide issue,” says Louis Lumpkin, Seaside’s deputy chief of police. “Tow companies are not able to place them in their yards.”

Lumpkin says the companies that currently tow vehicles in Seaside have limited space, and also have concerns about storing biohazards like chemical toilets. Lumpkin says the city is negotiating with Pick-n-Pull in Moss Landing as a potential storage site.

“Seaside is prime territory for RVs,” he says. “If somebody had the facilities, they could seriously make some money.”

The city is also firming up its strategy for rolling out the ordinance, Lumpkin adds. The current plan is to place bilingual warning stickers on offending vehicles beginning in mid-June, and to commence ticketing vehicles in mid-July. After three tickets, a vehicle will be towed.

When City Council first discussed the ordinance in April, Seaside resident Bill Weigle was among the few to express concern about its impact.

“It seems to me it’s one of these issues that comes down hardest on the people who can least afford it,” he says. “I’d like to see the city be part of the solution instead of just picking on poor people.”