The Danville City Council simply cannot stop talking, and talking some more, about camper and RV rules and garbage toter rules. During Tuesday night’s Council meeting, there were residents with plenty to say as well. Starting with the toters, the latest proposal of a system where residents and landlords would be fined if toters are not put properly away and left out by the street all the time, was voted down. Basically, there was a lot of worry about the involvement and fines of landlords for rental properties, how often they would be notified, and things like that. Director of Public Works Carl Carpenter warned the Council that they were simply listing all the excuses residents and landlords could use, and not focusing first and foremost on the responsibility of residents. But despite that, the latest proposal was voted down, leaving Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr to say that now nothing has been done about a problem so many seemed to want fixed. But he believes, they’ll keep trying.
AUDIO: I think it’s just a matter of logistics. Everyone wants the same thing, but the wording wasn’t right yet, so hopefully we can get there. I believe we’ll still work on it some more, because it’s too huge of a problem for us to leave as status quo.
As for the parking of campers and RVs, the ironic thing seems to be that once the original idea from a resident of simply allowing them to be parked in driveways, period, was done away with; the focus turned to defining the rule already on the books. As was pointed out, this rule goes back about 15 years to when lots of campers were in driveways in the Holiday Hills subdivision. The rule basically has been that campers and RVs need to be parked on the side or in back of a home, if they are kept there, not extending past the front of the house. Mayor Williams says, the discussion, in his eyes, has not been a bad thing.
AUDIO: No, because I think that what we brought before the Council clarified things to make it easier for the public to understand. So unfortunately, they left things status quo.
However, one resident who spoke Tuesday night lives on a corner, and that would mean he cannot have his camper in the front of the house, nor along with side road where his driveway is. The resident says, he’s been doing it the same way for over ten years, but did not get a notice about it until all the recent focus on this issue. Meanwhile, the discussion will likely continue.
