Council Passes Ordinance Addressing Long-Term Vehicle Parking and Obstructed Traffic on City Streets

Operations and Compliance Auditor, Scot Carcasi outlines the proposed ordinance addressing recreational vehicles and vehicles parked on city streets.

Tuesday’s City Council Meeting had a packed agenda, including the discussion surrounding a new city ordinance that citizens hoped would address the issue of junk vehicles, large trucks, and trailers or RVs parked on city streets for prolonged periods of time, blocking driveways, or obstructing the view of oncoming traffic in many areas across the city. 

The Ordinance which was listed on the agenda as, “An Ordinance Amending the City of Del Rio Code of Ordinances by Repealing and Replacing Chapter 17 - Motor Vehicles and Traffic, Article VI. - Stopping, Standing, and Parking,” was presented to the council by Operations and Compliance Auditor, Scot Carcasi. “We did hear from several community members and neighborhood services has received a lot of calls inquiring, asking for us to do something about a trailer or a vehicle that has been parked in the roadway for a long time,” Carcasi began by explaining what brought about the need to review the stopping, standing, and parking ordinance. “Sometime back our existing ordinance was reviewed and a lot of the teeth were taken out of it and it left a lot of gray areas and loopholes,” he continued. “So at the direction of the city manager, we were asked to look at an ordinance that would help close some of the loopholes in our existing ordinance, so we did that, we investigated numerous cities trying to find something that would fit for Del Rio.” 

He went on to present the proposed, updated ordinance drafted in collaboration with city manager Shawna Burkhart and City Attorney Ana Markowski-Smith. “What we put together is a combination of some of our existing ordinance that works and some new language that will assist code enforcement and eventually the police department should it go so far that we need their intervention,” Carasi stated. “One of the most consequential things that this will assist with is recreational vehicles, our current ordinance only allows recreational vehicles in your backyard, so this change authorizes if it is a fixed substantial compacted area, they could put their RVs on the side of their house or in their backyards,” he clarified. “It will assist in clarifying the ordinance for us (operations and compliance), and correcting that problem with the original ordinance. 

Another issue regarding recreational vehicles in the current ordinance is that it states that RVs can only be parked on a city street for no more than 24 hours before it is non compliant and will need to be moved. “That is up to the council's discretion and can either be left the same or changed,” Carcasi said. He also clarified that the 24 hour time limit only applies to recreational vehicles parked on city streets, there is no limit on RVs parked on private property. “This change actually assists our residents because the current ordinance doesn’t allow it in the street at all and it has to be in your backyard, and some people can’t put them in their backyard because they don’t have the space or there isn’t a driveway to the backyard.” “Under the new ordinance an RV parked on the side of the property or in the driveway would no longer be violating the ordinance, so long as it's on their property and not in the street.” 

Several council members raised questions and concerns about the language and parameters of the ordinance, asking for clarity on how this will be enforced and what specifically is a violation.  Carcasi, along with city attorney Markowski-Smith, clarified that under the new ordinance vehicles parked anywhere on a city street for prolonged periods of time or blocking a city or utility roadway would fall under this ordinance but it does not apply to vehicles parked on private property, junk vehicles in a private lot for example, would not fall under this ordinance but another city ordinance and would have to be addressed by the property owner before action could be taken.  Under the new ordinance, RVs would also be limited to parking at RV parks for long term stays unless given express permission to park on private property by the owner of the property. Vehicles also cannot block another person’s private driveway or a public driveway, and a vehicle cannot be parked within 20ft of someone else’s driveway. 

Carcasi also clarified that if a vehicle is found to be in violation of this ordinance and is reported to code enforcement, steps would be taken to contact the owner and find a solution, but ultimately the vehicles can not be towed or removed by city code enforcement, only by the police department if it reaches that point. Code enforcement can only issue a citation but law enforcement would have to remove the vehicle if need be. 

When asked if DRPD Chief Ramirez had reviewed the ordinance he replied, “looking at it, I don’t think we'd have an issue with it, it would be something that we could definitely take care of and help enforce, as with any new city ordinance, giving it something like a delayed start as you discussed, can give us time to fine tune it and figure out some of the things that might be a problem and work on that but as far as the enforcement side, we’re not gonna have any issues with it.”

Border Organization member and San Felipe resident, Cynthia McCrea addresses council regarding the issues her neighborhood has had with vehicles and obstructed traffic, speaking in support of the ordinance.

Several members of the community and members of the Border Organization, who have been meeting with city officials about this specific issue for the last few months, voiced their support for this ordinance during the citizen’s comments portion of the meeting. 

Rosa Arteaga, leader of the Border Organization and member of the San Felipe Association took to the podium to state that “it would greatly benefit me and my family if item 8b is passed because for years we have had a hard time just getting out of our driveway without being able to see oncoming traffic because of badly parked vehicles, thank you.” 

Cynthia McCrea, an educator, longtime resident of the San Felipe area, and member of the Border Organization, also shared her concerns and support of this ordinance. “I am representing the Border Organization and my neighborhood in the San Felipe area, I work there, I spend most of my time there, my parents’ home is there, and we would like you to consider looking at this ordinance that’s before you, it has to do with junk vehicles and travel vehicles, we’ve dealt with this for not one year, not two years, but many many years in my neighborhood, the traffic is obstructed, our view is obstructed and I think it will greatly improve Del Rio if we had an ordinance that will help us when there are issues with these vehicles.” “I don’t have a problem, if you want to own a travel vehicle but when it hasn’t moved in 10, 20 years and we can’t see around it, it becomes an issue of safety.” 

After discussion and concern raised by several members of council including Councilpersons Martinez, Lopez, Gutierrez, and De Reus, about the readiness of the ordinance and the time they were given to review it before the meeting, City Attorney Markowski Smith assured that the ordinance is standard aside from the components that the council is still deciding upon. “I know people are concerned in terms of the language but for the most part the ordinance is based on language that's already been adopted and proven through case law and enforcement, this is a very similar ordinance, in terms of the 20ft from a driveway, that’s very common throughout, in fact I don’t think there’s anything other than 20ft from what we’ve seen, from where it sits it’s a very responsible ordinance and we can always make changes to any ordinance just by giving the public notice.” 

Councilperson JP Sanchez raised a motion to pass the ordinance effective January 1, 2025 to give officials and residents ample time to inform and prepare for the changes and keeping the original 24 hour time limit on recreational vehicles, the motion was then seconded by Councilperson Gutierrez and passed unanimously.