CHEYENNE — A city ordinance preventing RVs and other oversized vehicles from parking on city streets takes effect again Saturday, lasting until next summer.
The Cheyenne City Council voted last December to implement the seasonal restriction, which bans vehicles larger than 25 feet long by 9 feet tall by 8.5 feet wide from parking on city streets. RVs smaller than this size, or those parked on private property, are not impacted by the ban.
While the ban is lifted temporarily in the summer months beginning five days before Memorial Day, it is reinstated again five days after Labor Day. RV owners can apply for a temporary $15 permit which allows oversized vehicles to park on city streets for five days during the banned months.
Those in violation of the ban will first receive a verbal warning from a police officer before being fined.
Owners of RVs and other vehicles longer than 25 feet must move them off the streets of Cheyenne to avoid potential fines. That’s because a controversial ban on parking them on city streets starts Saturday. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
Owners of RVs and other vehicles longer than 25 feet must move them off the streets of Cheyenne to avoid potential fines. That’s because a controversial ban on parking them on city streets starts Saturday. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily)
Safety Concerns
Cheyenne City Councilman Scott Roybal believes RVs can represent a safety hazard to drivers and snowplows, and he was a key supporter of the ban. He told Cowboy State Daily that the issue has proven highly divisive among city residents.
“At one point it became the most controversial thing besides potholes in the city,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “RV users against people who don’t have them.”
Roybal recalled that about 24 years ago the council was preparing to issue a complete ban on RV street parking altogether, until then-Mayor Leo Pando asked for more time to study the issue, effectively scrapping it. Anytime the issue resurfaced, Roybal said the city council would often receive an earful from local RV owners.
“It wasn’t that the council was against them, it was our constituents that brought these concerns to us,” he added. “I will tell you that none of the council owns an RV park.”
Former City Councilman Rocky Case told Cowboy State Daily that he advocated for banning large obstructions from city streets due to a childhood experience where he said he was struck by a driver whose visibility had been impeded.
“When I was 7 years old, I was hit by a car that was driving at a high rate of speed by a park,” Case said. “It was also on the wrong side of the road and there was a visibility problem from trees and cars.”
Case said he proposed an RV ban during his time on the council, but it didn’t receive enough support to move beyond the early stages.
“At the time, the council didn’t even have the appetite to entertain it, so I pulled it before it even hit committee,” he said.
While he is glad to see the ban passed, Case said there is more work to be done to make the streets of Cheyenne safer for drivers and pedestrians.
“I don’t think we’re done,” Case said. “The way I read this, [the ban] basically goes from Labor Day to Memorial Day. I just scratch my head and wonder ‘is safety not a problem through the summer months?’
“While I’m happy the ban is in place and the conversation is being had, I really do believe that it needs to be full force in effect year-round,” Case added. “It’s a step in the right direction but it’s not done.”
Nowhere Else To Go
Tom Fuller, a Cheyenne-based RV owner, publicly testified against the ordinance when it was considered by the council. He told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that the ban will have a negative impact on the lives of RV drivers.
“It’s a concern,” he said. "By doing a rule saying, ‘Get them off the streets one week after Labor Day and you can put them back on the week before Memorial Day,’ it may solve a problem, but it’s going to change peoples’ lifestyles.”
While Fuller has already stored his RV for the season in compliance with the ordinance, he said his neighbors who are busy caring for a young family can’t afford to rent RV storage.
“It’s going to change their lifestyle because they couldn’t budget another $100 per month to store their travel trailer,” Fuller said of his neighbors. “They were probably going to have to sell their travel trailer.”
The rule, he argued, feels like the city is “changing the rules in the middle of the game.”
Fuller also addressed the supposed safety hazard presented by street-parked RVs. Careful RV owners, he said, can often avoid blocking visibility by parking away from busy intersections.
“I was able to park on a side street well away from the corner, so I didn’t block anybody’s view,” he said. “I think it’s specific to wherever that RV’s parked.”
His RV, Fuller recalled, has also never interfered with snowplows.
”They never plowed my streets anyway,” he said. “I don’t recall that the city plowed the streets until it got so bad that they had to.”
Jackson Walker can be reached at walker@cowboystatedaily.com.
