WILLISTON, N.D. — People living in campers in Williston will have to get rolling, but they have a few months to find a new place to park.
The Williston City Commission unanimously approved Tuesday night an ordinance that makes it illegal to live in an RV outside of a designated RV park.
Campers in residential areas will have to relocate by Sept. 1 and RVs in commercial or industrial areas will have until Nov. 1.
The penalty for violating the ordinance is a $500 fine for each day of noncompliance.
Commissioners have said the hundreds of RVs around the city create health and safety hazards. In previous meetings, they have cited cases of people urinating outside their campers, inappropriately dumping waste and illegally hooking up to utilities.
Several RV parks in the Williston area are under construction, but what they will charge for rent is unclear. Mayor Ward Koeser said he’s heard rent may be $750 to $800 per month.
Paul Miller, who lives in an RV parked in a church driveway, said the rent is too steep for service workers like him and he expects many will leave town.
“I’ve come to say goodbye to the city if this law passes,” Miller said.
He told commissioners he wishes the city would have charged campers a weekly or monthly fee until the RV park rates came down to a reasonable amount.
Miller, who said his employer didn’t want him to say publicly where he works, plans to continue working in Williston this summer and move to Montana before Sept. 1.
He predicts that lines in restaurants and other businesses will only get longer as a result of the ordinance.
“It’s going to hurt this city of Williston,” Miller said.
Koeser said he’s received public comments on both sides of the RV ban, but an increasing number of comments have been concerns and frustrations about the RVs.
“I needed to protect our residents who have lived here, who pay taxes here,” said Koeser, who said approving the ordinance was difficult for commissioners. “I need to protect the quality of life I think they deserve.”
Many of the construction workers building Williston’s permanent housing live in RVs at work sites.
The ordinance allows building contractors to apply for $200 monthly RV permits to accommodate those workers. That will be reevaluated in a year.
The ordinance does not affect people living in cars or vehicles.
Williston Police Chief James Lokken said the department will determine how to enforce the ordinance. Officers may initially give out warnings.
“It’s going to be tough,” Lokken said. “We’re just hoping people will move on their own.”
This breaks my heart. I understand the need for safe neighborhoods, I really do. I have three children and want a safe community for my family. While I don’t believe there is a threat to physical safety, I must admit there are health concerns. I have had several campers across the street from my home as well as a couple in the alley behind my home during various times in the past year or two. My wife has seen campers behind a local grocery store, in which there sat a little girl, about the same age as one of our daughters, sitting at a table…playing…the door open, attempting to stay cool. How hard it must be for these families! My wife stopped and visiting with the father, who said they were doing “fine” and he appreciated our offer of assistance. Most of the time these are proud people. Hard working, honest, optomistic and ambitious. I think the city and maybe even the state could assist with some sort of rent cap or control for those service workers that need a hand staying in the community. At least for a time, until affordable housing can be built. Slap a time frame on it and give these new citizens a hand.
nice article Amy.
We went through similar events on the Minnesota Iron Range in the 70′s taconite building boom. Boomers sleeping in campers anywhere they could find a place to park them. All available rental units, no matter how primitive, where rented. The restaurants and bars had a windfall, many marriages were broken as boomers moved in on any woman they could find, landlords got very rich in two years. And when they were gone, everything was gone. The restaurants emptied out, more rental units and houses on the market in poor physical condition, and we went on to rebuild our lives after all the action.
There are upsides for some, and downsides for others. That’s life.