The Watsonville City Council advanced new rules to prohibit large vehicles from parking on public streets. The County of Santa Cruz recently passed a law allowing large vehicles to be scrapped as soon as they are towed, including RVs such as these parked on South Rodeo Gulch Road near Soquel. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local file)

WATSONVILLE >> The Watsonville City Council advanced an ordinance this week to ban the parking of oversized vehicles on public streets. 

The move follows the adoption of a similar ordinance in the City of Santa Cruz that went into effect in 2024 and new rules in unincorporated county areas that allow RVs to be scrapped immediately upon towing. 

“This is to deal with the [influx] of these vehicles coming down from Santa Cruz,” said Watsonville City Councilmember Jimmy Dutra. “They’re starting to implement ordinances that are not allowing these kind of vehicles to stay in their communities, and so Watsonville is getting the flux of them.” 

At Tuesday’s meeting, council members debated the letter and the spirit of the proposed law. Some were concerned that it would cast too wide a net, including Councilmember Casey Clark who said his truck exceeded the height limit.

Councilmember Vanessa Quiroz-Carter — the sole dissenter in a 6-1 vote — questioned whether the ordinance was directed at homeless people.

“There are so many people who live in their vehicles. I can’t support this if we don’t have any safe overnight parking,” she said. “Frankly, this just sounds like anti-homelessness to me.”

Contracted traffic engineer Jaime Rodriguez, who presented the ordinance alongside Watsonville Police Capt. Mish Radich, stressed that the intent was not to target homeless people who live in large vans or RVs. 

He and Radich said the target of the ordinance was commercial vehicles being stored on public streets and vehicles creating “blight,” however they did not define what was meant by the term.

In a slide presentation, Rodriguez and Radich shared photos of example vehicles that the ordinance would aim to address, including RVs, a semi-truck, a limousine and a boat trailer.  

A screenshot from a presentation to the Watsonville City Council showing examples of oversized vehicles on Watsonville streets. (City of Watsonville)

“Our intention was really to clean up the city, get ahead of the potential of more cars entering the city from other counties, and making sure the roads are just safer for everyone,” Rodriguez said. “The intent behind this is not to impact hardworking folks.”

As written, the ordinance applies to all oversized vehicles that exceed the size limits.

Radich said that enforcement would be driven by complaints from residents rather than proactive police enforcement.

The ordinance would prohibit any vehicle or trailer from being parked on public streets if it is more than 8 feet tall, more than 8.5 feet wide, more than 22 feet long or more than 10,000 pounds. 

The ordinance includes several exceptions including for wheelchair-accessible vans, vehicles actively loading or unloading, vehicles owned by authorities, and RVs parked at Pinto Lake City Park that have paid daily parking fees.

The ordinance needs a second reading to be adopted, after which it would take effect 30 days later. The council is scheduled to hear the item again on Feb. 10. 

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