At Thursday’s Board of Selectmen meeting Fred Camillo brought up an ongoing issue concerning recreational vehicles (RVs) parked on Town roads and in yards in residential neighborhoods.
He said there he’d received reports of incidents across Town, and that some residents want to ban RVs on private property.
“I don’t know if we want to go that far,” he said. “But I think personally they take away from the aesthetics of a neighborhood. But I want to put it on everyone’s radar – whether we want to do something about RVs parked on roads in residential areas.”
“I know of two cases of people who do that – they’re great people. They’re not breaking any rules or ordinances now,” he said. “I thinking it’s something we should take up. If someone is selling their house, they’re upset because people are coming to look at their house, and it doesn’t look good.”
Camillo said there was a safety aspect involved because RVs sometimes block sight lines.
An attendee on the Zoom meeting, Rob Kach, spoke about an RV parked in his neighborhood near the corner of Ivy Street and High Street in Byram.
Referring to the vehicle as an eyesore, Mr. Kach said the RV was the size of a tractor trailer.
“The property values are obviously going to go down,” he added. “Who wants to buy a house in that vicinity with that eyesore there?”
“To access the back yard to park this RV they had to put gravel on Town property,” he added. “The people who own the property – it’s not even their vehicle.”
“I totally understand yours and your neighbors’ point of view and I think it’s something we need to look into,” said Selectwoman Lauren Rabin. “I’m not equating it to the blight ordinance, but there is something impacting the aesthetics and potentially property values, so we need to understand what it is and what, if anything can be done.”
“To have these vehicles parked indefinitely – that’s the issue,” Camillo said. “Maybe we can come up with a policy that’s understanding, fair and reasonable and protects the integrity of the neighborhoods.”
The town municipal code includes a relevant ordinance – Sec. 6-193 Trailers Prohibited. “No premises shall be used for the parking or other accommodation of any automobile trailer, house car, or trailer coach being used as living or sleeping quarters, or for the preparation of meals or any combination thereof.
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