City to enforce RV parking ordinance starting January 6
Decision comes after Sebastopol prevailed in ACLU lawsuit
The city of Sebastopol announced on Friday, Dec. 6, that it intends to begin enforcing its controversial RV Parking Ordinance on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.
The City’s RV Ordinance prohibits parking a recreational vehicle on any public street in the city that is zoned residential at any time. RVs are allowed to park between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. on “public streets that are zoned commercial, industrial, or community facility.”
In other words, it allows homeless individuals living in RVs to park overnight to sleep, but not to set up a permanent encampment of the sort that can be seen lining Highway 116 in north Sebastopol.
According to a city press release, “On January 6, the city will also begin increased enforcement of other parking regulations for all vehicles, including both RVs and non-RVs. In particular, the city will be increasing enforcement of the prohibition on any vehicle parking in the same location for longer than 72 hours.”
Sebastopol’s Recreational Vehicle Parking Ordinance, which went into effect on March 26, 2022, came about because of the health and safety issues caused by the homeless RV encampment on Morris Street and scattered homeless-owned RVs elsewhere around town.
The ordinance, which regulates where and when recreational vehicles may park on public streets, has never been enforced due to litigation challenging the ordinance by a coalition of civil rights organizations, including ACLU of Northern California and others.
Two and a half weeks ago, on Nov. 22, Judge Kandis Westmore of the United States District Court for the Northern California District ruled in favor of the city of Sebastopol in that litigation. (See our article on this decision.)
Moving the problem
From March 2022 to March 2024, most of the homeless RVs in town were moved to Horizon Shine, a homeless RV Village on Hwy. 116 run by Sonoma Applied Village Services (SAVS). When that site closed this spring, many simply parked their RVs on the street outside the shuttered Horizon Shine site. Since then, the number of RVs has grown markedly.
At the Dec. 3 council meeting, Angie Sebring, who lived at Horizon Shine and now lives in one of the RVs on Hwy. 116, asked the city to give the residents of the RVs plenty of notice—and also find some way to help them.
“I am a citizen of Sebastopol. I’ve lived here for 20 years, and now I’m staying in an RV across the street from Lucky’s. And I realize that’s somewhat of a controversial scenario. And basically, I just wanted to point out that ever since Horizon Shine closed and SAVS just kind of washed their hands of the people that were in there, there really isn’t any outreach going on to the people on the street.
I understand that the moratorium on the RV ban is probably going to be lifted, if not now, very soon. And I just want to say that we want to make sure that the people on the street are given as much notice as possible as to when they have to absolutely move.
I’d also like to say that any encouragement that we could get from some of the nonprofits that receive some of the money that comes down from the homeless projects from state and federal [governments], if they can be encouraged to kind of help some of the people there.
I’m doing okay myself. I’m about to leave that area, and I’ve managed to turn a lot of things in my life around. So I don’t need the help as much as everyone else on the street, but they really don’t have any outreach or any help or any idea what’s going on until the police are there.”
Sebastopol Mayor Stephen Zollman said the city will give people in RVs plenty of notice.
“This notice is to provide them with time to move their RVs and get into compliance with the ordinance,” Zollman said. “Once the city begins enforcing the ordinance, those who violate the ordinance will generally receive a warning, and then if the violation continues, the city will commence enforcement, which can include fines or towing, depending on the circumstances.”
Zollman believes the RV Parking Ordinance is a good compromise.
“Homelessness is a very complex issue, with many different causes,” Mayor Zollman said. “There is no perfect solution to address the issues that RV encampments cause, but I believe that the ordinance does a good job of balancing the interests of all members of the community, including those living in RVs. I will continue to work on furthering other programs that address the crisis of homelessness in the city.”
ACLU may be down, but not out
When we published our article on the end of the ACLU’s lawsuit, it was unclear whether or not the court’s decision could be appealed. Turns out it can be.
The Sebastopol Times heard back from William Freeman, senior counsel at the ACLU of Northern California, last week. Here’s what he had to say:
“We respectfully disagree with the Court’s order and have clear grounds for appeal based on a number of critical errors, including the following:
First, at this stage of the proceedings, the Court was required to allow the case to proceed to trial if the evidence was disputed. The Court ignored strong evidence presented by the Plaintiffs about the City’s motivations in adopting the ordinance and its own officials’ confusion about what the ordinance means.
Second, the Court applied an incorrect legal standard, ruling that cities can discriminate against specific groups simply by citing an alternative justification.
Third, the Court ignored substantial evidence that city officials intended to target vehicle residents, evidence that should have been considered at this stage.
We remain committed to protecting the rights of those who have no choice but to live in their vehicles.”
Some readers were also wondering whether or not Sebastopol would be able to recover its legal fees incurred during the lawsuit—which added up to over half-a-million dollars. The answer is no.
“In general, public agencies are not able to recover their legal fees in cases in which they prevail,” Sebastopol City Attorney Alex Mog told the Sebastopol Times.
“Any judgment by a district court can be appealed, including this ruling,” he added.
In this political environment, it doesn't seem like the ACLU is going to get a favorable ruling on appeal. Maybe they should save their money and let this go.
Some of the RVs are neat and clean and some are a real mess. Moving every 72 hours will force them to clean up after themselves. One does not have to be messy.