Council discusses gaps in local code on living in campers, parking and dog fees

Council members opened a broad review of local ordinances and agreed to prioritize and work through key sections of Title 6 rather than read the entire code line by line.

A central topic was enforcement around people living in campers. One council member said council has "talked about how, like, oh, you can't live in a camper here, but there is no explicit place, in the ordinance for us to enforce that," noting the code defines travel trailers and campers but lacks follow-up language that would make living in one clearly prohibited or enforceable. The same speaker described a recent local complaint about a person living in a camper and said neighbors had called but staff struggled to find an ordinance to rely on.

Councilors and staff discussed related limits: if a camper is not hooked to city water or sewer the city has less enforcement leverage; if it is hooked up it may become a second dwelling under other code provisions. The police chief (as identified on the agenda) and other members suggested drafting clearer language to define when a camper constitutes a dwelling or secondary unit and which utility hookups, time limits or occupancy conditions would be enforceable.

Members also raised other code topics for prioritization, including dog licensing/fee schedules (to avoid repeatedly amending ordinances), parking (overnight camping in city lots), sidewalks, and uncontrolled intersections where the city could collect data to support changes. The council asked staff to provide recommended ordinance language and to return with a prioritized list at the next meeting.

Next steps: staff were asked to draft recommended ordinance language on campers and to return with prioritized ordinance topics for the council to address in future work sessions.