Residents of San Jose, CA:

San Jose's current enforcement policy for its Nuisance Abatement and Community Preservation ordinances has allowed this untenable situation:

The proximity of the trailer parked in the front yard next door to this living room is

inconsistent with ordinance 17.02.010 which prohibits

“any thing or condition” which “interferes with comfortable enjoyment of life or property”

Please Help

Urge city officials to either enforce 17.02.010 in situations like this

and/or to modify the subordinate RV parking regulations

Summarization of current San Jose ordinances as applied to RV/trailer parking:

An RV/trailer may be parked in a front yard if it is on pavement (17.72.600), perpedicular to the street (17.72.610), not used for sleeping (17.72.580) and does not interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property (17.02.010, 17.72.620).

See Resources tab for link to the text of these regulations.

Ordinance 17.02.010:

  • prohibits “any thing or condition” which “interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property”
  • Enforcement appears to be limited to specifically delineated conditions.

Ordinance 17.72.620:

  • Prohibits a parking condition which complies with the specific parking ordinances, but violates another provision of the code

The subordinate parking regulations provide no limitation on where in the front yard an RV may be parked.

Ignoring the surrounding environment leads to unreasonable impacts

Examples of home/RV parking configurations:

Someone else’s RV in front of home:

This is allowed… for 72 hours

How would you feel if someone parked here indefinitely?

Anything more intrusive should not be allowed

RV in driveway next door (releatively benign):

Less impacting to neighbor than if parked indefinitely on street in front of their home

RV in driveway next door (problem):

Proximity to neighbor living space is unacceptably close

Closer than if on street

Far more impacting than if on street – as seen in photo above

Request protection against this situation

Request that existing ordinance (e.g. 17.02.010/17.72.620) be applied to this condition and/or that specific criteria be added to RV/trailer parking ordinances

These options would provide protection against conditions such as depicted in the photo above:

  1. Enforce existing ordinance (e.g. 17.02.010/17.72.620) in cases where an RV/trailer is parked closer than a prescribed distance to a neighboring street-facing, living-space window
  2. Limit proximity: require that RV/trailers parked in front yards be at least a prescribed distance from neighboring street-facing, living-space windows
  3. Require screening if an RV/trailer parking location is closer than a prescribed distance from neighboring street-facing, living-space windows

A reasonable prescribed distance would be the distance between the impacted window and the street.

If this distance is less than 25 feet, then the prescribed distance shall be 25 feet.

The rationale is to prevent conditions any more intrusive than a neighbor’s RV parked indefinitely on the street directly in front of one’s home.

Enforce on complaint and without regard to how long the RV/trailer has been parked in the reported location.

Please help urge the city to implement this sensible change!

The text of San Jose’s ordinances as well as examples of ordinances from other locations may be found via links on the Resources Page

If you have already signed the electronic or physical petition, you can send an email to the Mayor and City Council

Please share this link and encourage your San Jose neighbors, friends and contacts to support this effort!