Planning board backs draft RV ordinance, asks commission to add grandfathering and clarify screening

The City of South Miami Planning & Zoning Board voted unanimously on June 10 to forward a proposed ordinance (PBD-2025-004) that would regulate the parking, storage and occupancy of recreational vehicles on residential property, asking the City Commission to consider several clarifications before final adoption.

The board’s action followed a presentation by Mark Alvarez, a planning consultant with the Corradino Group, who summarized the proposal as an effort to balance property-owner rights with neighbors’ protections. "We have proposed an ordinance that will try to balance the rights and protections for people who are neighbors as well as balance the enjoyment of people who own RVs," Alvarez said.

Under the draft ordinance, each property could have one recreational vehicle on site, and the ordinance would link RV ownership to the property to prevent commercial storage operations on residential lots. The code would distinguish parking from storage: short-term overnight parking would be allowed, and guest vehicles could remain for up to 14 days; storage beyond that period would trigger additional rules. Owners would have 30 days to register an RV after the ordinance is enacted, modeled on the city’s boat-registration process.

The draft sets technical limits and conditions, including: storing RVs only in the rear or side yard behind the front building line (never in the front yard beyond temporary parking), a minimum five-foot setback from neighboring property lines, a prohibition on living in or occupying an RV on private property, a maximum RV length of 40 feet and a maximum height of 13.5 feet, requirements that stored RVs be kept reasonably clean (examples listed include visible mold or mildew), and a requirement that RVs be secured or tied down during hurricane season unless in active use for travel.

Board members pressed the consultant on enforceability and edge cases. One member asked how an inspector would determine if someone was living in an RV without long-term surveillance; Alvarez said the ordinance uses six visible, rebuttable criteria to create a prima facie presumption of occupancy so enforcement can begin on observable conditions and owners would be allowed to rebut allegations.

Several members urged an exemption or phase-in for long-standing residents. A member speaking remotely said that removing vehicles from properties where residents have stored them for decades would be "inappropriate" without a grandfathering approach; the board asked staff to present a grandfathering or delayed-compliance option similar to prior boat-registration rules.

The board also asked staff to clarify screening requirements. The draft currently requires screening and references both a six-foot fence and landscaping maintained to 10 feet in height; members noted that requiring both a fixed fence and a hedge would be contradictory and difficult to implement. Staff agreed to correct the language and to consider adding a front-yard gate or opaque screening requirement where stored RVs would otherwise be visible from a public street.

A motion was made and seconded to forward PBD-2025-004 to the City Commission with the recommended adjustments — adding a grandfathering option, clarifying front-yard gate/fence/screening, and resolving the fence-versus-hedge language — and the measure passed unanimously.

What happens next: staff will refine the ordinance language before transmittal to the City Commission, which will consider the ordinance and any amendments at a future meeting. The board noted that emergency situations (for example, during declared hurricane events) could alter enforcement and occupancy rules, and staff said those contingencies would be addressed in the final draft sent to the commission.