To the Santa Cruz City Council,
Re: Item #25 on the Afternoon Session of the June 28, 2016 Agenda,
HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) opposes the proposed ban on RV parking city-wide during the nighttime hours of midnight to 5 PM.
It limits public access unnecessarily to the Coastal Zone.
It discriminates against poor people (and indeed anyone) who live in or drive RV’s by denying them coastal access.
It puts a particular burden on those whose only affordable housing is a vehicle by making it illegal to park them at night.
It discriminates against those who own or rent property in Santa Cruz by denying them a permit process.
It was done with no determination of its impact on those living in their vehicles in the City and threatens their health and safety.
It is especially cruel and abusive considering the acknowledged shelter crisis.
It does include a provision for Safe Parking spaces at night, such as Santa Barbara provides, that might provide a refuge or safety valve for those banned at night.
It prejudices the right to travel, by eliminating the right to park an RV in Santa Cruz for those visiting.
It was passed without meaningful police documentation of the alleged problems justifying the unusual exclusionary policy.
It is being done without a procedure for consulting the neighborhoods involved as is the accepted practice for requiring permits to park in other cities (as well as in Santa Cruz for vehicles generally).
The oversized vehicle restriping law passed last year provides overly broad authority to the traffic engineer to expand the zone in which parking spaces for larger vehicles can be completely eliminated without recourse to public comment or public vote.
In addition given the infirmities in the proposed law (even as amended to limit the time of the parking bans), it will–when rejected by the Coastal Commission–put an undue burden on those whose homes and property is on the Coastal zone if the city chooses to authorize enforcement of the non-Coastal areas of the City as may be likely.
Please send this law back to the appropriate Commission or City Council committee for more public input with the individuals seriously affected (poor people who live in their vans, homeless service providers, tourists who visit the city).
Please request specific documentation on the abuses real and alleged that supposedly motivate this law to examine their exact extent in the last year to determine specific remedies rather than this overly broad attack that hurts poor and homeless people particularly. And shames our community generally.
I also encourage others to register their concerns by calling City Council at 420-5020 and/or e-mailing them at citycouncil@cityofsantacruz.
In addition, any members of the City Council or community who wish to appeal a negative vote of the City Council can deliver a appeal form to the Coastal Commission at 725 Front St Ste 300,Santa Cruz, CA 95060. Here is the link for the Coastal Commission appeal form: http://www.coastal.ca.gov/cdp/
Thanks,
Robert Norse
HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom)
(423-4833)