MOUNTAIN VIEW — A new city law to prevent people from parking their motorhomes on narrow streets won’t take effect this summer as planned because a referendum to block the ban has qualified for the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot.
Mountain View election officials confirmed this week they have received more than 4,000 valid signatures calling for the referendum. In an effort to appease residents’ complaints about homeless people parking their oversize vehicles on residential streets, the City Council approved an ordinance in September to outlaw the practice.
Council members now must either rescind the ordinance at a Jan. 14 meeting or authorize placing a referendum on the November ballot.
The referendum is the result of a door-knocking campaign by more than 100 advocates from the Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America and the Housing Justice Coalition of Mountain View who asked residents to strike down what they call an “inhumane” ordinance.
Former Mountain View mayor and coalition member Lenny Siegel, who was instrumental in the campaign, said he’s glad “we made it with plenty to spare.”
“We mostly went door-to-door instead of going to supermarkets,” Siegel said. “There were some people that were immediately supportive and some that were immediately opposed. What was more interesting is the conversations I had with people. People who said they were for or against, all want a solution. They want the city to find a place where people can park off the street.”
The homeless parking issue has been the subject of heated conversations, dozens of complaints, legal threats and impassioned speeches at packed city meetings over the years.
In September, Mountain View joined East Palo Alto and Berkeley in trying to stop RV camping, passing two ordinances prohibiting oversize vehicle parking on narrow city streets and on streets with bike lanes; only the ban regarding narrow streets is being contested. Other Peninsula cities are expected to similarly crack down, including Redwood City, which has scheduled discussions on the issue for next month.
Mountain View also started a safe parking program to reserve almost 100 parking spaces for the 200-plus RV dwellers in the city counted by the county in 2018.
Mountain View Mayor Lisa Matichak said she encourages RV dwellers to apply for a spot in the safe parking program.z
“Not only is there a place to park, but those living in vehicles will be connected to services,” Matichak said. “The most important of [those services] is working with them to get them into stable housing.”
But Siegel and others say the safe parking plan is “designed to fail.” RV dweller Janet Stevens called the plan a “red herring” and a “distraction to make it seem like they’re doing something when in reality it does nothing to help anyone.”
“That safe parking cannot work for an RV,” Stevens said. “If you parked at the safe parking and you had a battery that runs everything in your RV, you can’t possibly do that safe parking program without absolutely destroying your batteries.”
As a result, Stevens said, they would be left without electricity to power their refrigerators, lights and other appliances.
“I honestly don’t feel that that was a legitimate thing to try and do safe parking,” Stevens added. “It doesn’t solve anything at all, and if you went there you would be in a much worse financial situation because of the damage your RV could incur. And that’s saying nothing of the gas.”
While the program was “born of good intentions,” Siegel said it’s really designed to drive people out of town.
“If people have no place to go during the day, kicking them out in the morning doesn’t work,” Siegel said. “If you have a motorhome and you have to leave at 7 or 8 a.m., unless you have an employer, you have nowhere to go and can spend all day driving around.”
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