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Richland Town Board debates rules for campers on private property
Summary
At a June 4 special workshop the Town Board reviewed draft regulations to allow residents to host guests in travel trailers while limiting long-term campground-style occupancy, discussing stay durations, a three-unit cap, septic and utilities, fees, and a proposed July public hearing and SEQR review.
The Town Board of the Town of Richland met June 4 in Pulaski for a special workshop to review draft rules for homeowners who allow guests to park travel trailers or campers on their property. The board framed the effort as balancing residents’ ability to host friends and family with preventing properties from becoming de facto summer-long campgrounds.
Board members and attendees discussed several concrete proposals, including numeric limits on consecutive days a camper may remain, a uniform cap of three campers per residential parcel, registration and roadworthiness requirements, and clarified that family stays without a fee are not intended to be regulated as commercial activity. The board also heard that homeowners actively rebuilding a house commonly live in an onsite camper for extended periods and that prior local practice sometimes allowed up to two years with extensions for good cause.
The workshop covered public-health and utility considerations—septic hookups must comply with Department of Health rules tied to a home’s septic design, and municipal water for visiting campers would be metered. The board discussed a one-year trial of the new rules and signaled it would monitor enforcement and vacant-lot camping this season. The board proposed holding a public hearing in July and conducting SEQR in parallel.
