Bellingham seeks site for RVs, limits on where they can park for people who live in them
Bellingham is seeking a supervised area where people who live in their cars and RVs can stay, and also is asking the City Council to consider new restrictions on parking, especially near schools and other places where children are present.
Mayor Seth Fleetwood proposed the measures during a City Council committee session Monday afternoon.
“This has been a vexxing challenge for quite some time,” Fleetwood told the council.
“I’ve directed legal staff to prepare for your consideration an ordinance,” he said.
Fleetwood suggested that such an measure would outlaw RV parking near schools and organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellingham.
In addition to the new parking limits, Bellingham will be issuing a “request for proposals” to find a place where cars and RVs can park safely, and an organization to supervise and operate that site.
An attempt to create such a safe space and find an operator failed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fleetwood said.
Court rulings have held that living in a car or RV is not against the law. But many cities, including Bellingham, limit the amount of time that cars and RVs can park in one place to 72 hours.
Bellingham has been struggling with RV parking in neighborhoods for several years, and several locations have caused problems, officials said — including a site on Moore Street near Carl Cozier Elementary School and the Arne Hanna Aquatic Center.
