Will Villaraigosa Veto RV Parking Limits In Venice?

Fearing that anti-RV parking zones for Venice could be vetoed by Los Angeles' mayor, the leader of a beach-side community group penned an open letter to Antonio Villaraigosa and Westside city Councilman Bill Rosendahl challenging them to get the overnight parking limits off the ground.

Rosendahl last week began allowing residents who want the limits to circulate petitions that are required to get no-oversize-vehicle-parking signs on their streets. The signs are supposed to go up if two-thirds of the residents on a block agree and sign up. However, the councilman has stated the full City Council needs to take one more vote -- an "implementing ordinance" -- in order for the parking limits to go into effect.

Mark Rayavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association, says the City Attorney's office has told him such a vote is not necessary.

In any case, Rayavec wants to know if Villaraigosa will veto the implementing ordinance and whether Rosendahl has secured the mayor's promise to get the RV limits going. "Mayor Villaraigosa, will you indeed sign the ordinance," Rayavec writes.

In the past the mayor has opposed another anti-RV measure for Venice -- resident-only, overnight parking districts (OPDs), which have been rejected by the California Coastal Commission.

" ... It's time we embraced the challenge and began working toward real solutions, not those that push problems from one block to another, from one neighborhood to another," the mayor stated in June.

Things have changed since then, however: Anti-RV activists got a lot of traction after three reports of illegal sewage dumping by RV dwellers in Venice surfaced last month. The allegations inspired Rosendahl to speed up the anti-RV parking zones, which would prohibit overnight parking (2 a.m.-6 a.m.) for vehicles taller than 7 feet or longer than 22 feet.

The so-called "mobile homeless" in Venice have comprised a contentious issue for years as homeless advocates have cast those living in their vehicles as fellow Venetians in need of local services. Those opposed have largely attempted to paint RV dwellers as criminals and drug users who shouldn't be allowed to "park and snooze" near residential areas.

Rosendahl has tried to find some middle ground by initiating a program that will create special overnight parking lots for RV dwellers who would eventually be placed into permanent housing.