City set to limit trailer parking: New rules for RVs, boats on streets to get final council vote

Homeowners associations often tell their residents they can’t park their boats or campers in front of their homes, but the Greenwood City Council wants to make those restrictions citywide.

The council is considering preventing residents from parking boats, trailers, campers and recreational vehicles in front of their houses for any more than two days. The restrictions are aimed at improving the city’s appearance and boosting property values, council member Ron Bates said.

Many homeowners associations throughout Greenwood already have such rules. But Bates said citywide regulations could protect residents in older neighborhoods that no longer have active homeowners associations or never had them to begin with.

Residents who can’t call a homeowners association to complain about a neighbor having a boat or RV parked out front for weeks or months could instead call city code enforcement, Bates said. No additional code enforcement officers will be needed, and the costs of enforcing the new rules should be minimal, he said.

“The main thing is to keep up aesthetics in the neighborhoods,” he said. “It benefits the neighborhood as a whole when the aesthetic value of property is maintained.”

Under the proposed rules, boats, RVs and trailers wouldn’t be allowed anywhere on the front part of a property, including the driveway, for more than 48 hours. Boats for instance would have to be parked at least 10 feet from the street.

This story appears in the print edition of Daily Journal. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.