Council moving quickly to ban RV parking on narrow streets

Decision would move dozens of such dwellers parked across the city

The Mountain View City Council unanimously has agreed to begin restricting RVs from narrow streets across the city starting April 1, a move critics say could displace dozens of families.

City staffers Tuesday said it should take five to seven months to install 2,600 new parking restriction signs on 444 streets at a cost of nearly $1 million.

After Mountain View voters overwhelmingly supported banning RVs from the city’s narrow streets with 57% of the vote, City Council members were tasked with enforcing the new rules and dealing with the consequences.

The council’s decision to move quickly threatens more than two dozen families in RVs and oversized vehicles that over the past decade have continued to park along the city’s streets as rising home prices force people into precarious living conditions.

One of the largest concentrations of RV and vehicle dwellers in the city is on Crisanto Avenue near Rengstorff Park, where dozens of people have gathered to form an impromptu community of homeless families, young people and elderly.

To house the people that the council is likely to displace, several members questioned staffers about the city’s safe parking program and Project Homekey funds, state and federal money to house homeless people.

But Council member Alison Hicks cautioned that many RV residents whom she has spoken with have told her they have trouble qualifying for Homekey-type programs as they “are not vulnerable enough” based on income or need.

Hicks also argued the council should go slow on implementing the new policy amid the health risks of displacing people while the Bay Area remains under strict stay-at-home orders.

“I think we’re really in an unprecedented place with many moving parts,” Hicks said, adding that she would like staffers to return with a study session in March.

Hicks was joined by vocal critics of the city’s plan, including Tessa K, who called in to “express my dismay at the cold sentiments” of many of her neighbors. She said “enforcement of this measure during an extreme rise in COVID-19 cases is going to be a public health disaster.”

Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America member Johannes Muenzel also cautioned about relying on safe parking programs and Homekey funds, both of which are plagued with long waiting lists.

“We’re talking about a million- dollar price tag,” he said. “There are so many other places that money should be put.”

But Council member Lisa Matichak and Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga argued that the city has ample safe parking to accommodate the displaced RV dwellers and said the city will use Homekey funds to place RV dwellers in permanent housing.

During the meeting, a Move Mountain View representative said that its services for safe parking are “full” and there is more demand for safe parking than supply. The same night, the council voted unanimously to negotiate a contract with Live Nation for cheaper rent without adding more safe parking spaces at the Shoreline Amphitheater.

To keep the move from quickly affecting clusters of RV residents in Mountain View, the city will keep the largest concentrations last. City staffers also said they already have begun doing outreach and canvassing to let residents know what to expect. Mountain View police Sgt. Scott Nelson said “citations or tows would be a last resort” when enforcement begins.

The council’s direction on implementing Measure C still could radically change, though, as two new council members who opposed the measure will be seated Jan. 12 and could turn the balance in the favor of slowing down the process.

When asked Wednesday, newly elected Council member and former Mayor Sally Lieber did not say whether she would seek to slow implementation down but did excoriate the council for moving “full steam ahead.” She said the council has to “implement the will of the voters,” but she believes the voters need to be informed about the cost and consequences “that the city is not sharing.”

Lieber said she was dismayed that the council didn’t ask for more safe parking spaces in talks with Live Nation, “even if it wasn’t needed.”

“It seems to me like the business of the council should be to get as many options to the community as possible,” she said. “I don’t know why they would take options away from the community. And I think when decisions like these are made that affect so many people’s lives so profoundly, there’s something going wrong.”