Responding to Hollister Police Chief David Westrick’s request to help limit the amount of time vehicles — primarily RV’s — can park on certain city streets, the City Council on Monday approved the first reading of an ordinance that establishes three-hour parking limits on portions of three streets: Flora Avenue, Gateway Drive, and Maple Street.
The goal is to provide police with an enforcement tool against “those vehicles that park for extended periods of time.” In a report to the council, Interim Engineering Manager David Rubcic said business along those streets “should have unobstructed parking for staff and customers on-site.”
Karson Klauer, whose family owns a gym on Maple Street, near McDonald’s and the Department of Motor Vehicles, said, “I think there is a pretty big problem with the number of old motor homes that are parked on these streets.” He noted that restricting parking on three specific streets will only be a “Band-Aid” and that “we need to look at an ordinance” that will address the issue throughout the city. “I don’t want to have a bunch of people living on the street in front of the hotel” that is being built on Gateway Drive, behind Tiffany Motors.
Councilman Victor Gomez, while in favor of the ordinance, said the people forced to move by the new parking restrictions — if adopted at the council’s next meeting — “are gonna move somewhere else in the city. We need to look at more of a broad solution.”
Councilwoman Mickie Luna called the parking rules “a start.”
Westrick agreed with Klauer’s assessment that the parking restrictions on three streets are a “Band-Aid for now” and that the city does “need to take a more comprehensive look” at the issue of vehicles parked for extended periods of time — particularly in business areas.
Currently, vehicles are allowed to park for up to 72 hours in the same spot before having to move. Rubcic said most of the vehicle owners who park their vehicles on the streets in question move their vehicles “to a different location on the same street or to another street within the city. They then return for another 72 hours.”
The proposed ordinance amendment will come back to the council for further discussion and approval later this month, and take effect 30 days after its adoption.