Drivers of campers, boats on trailers, motor homes and other recreational vehicles now face stricter rules if they want to park in South Barrington.
Restrictions approved this week by the village board include limits on where people can park such vehicles, how long RVs can be parked and how many times per year they can be parked at a given address.
Complaints from residents prompted officials to develop the rules, Mayor Paula McCombie said. The changes have been in the works at least two years.
Among the rules:
- Recreational vehicles can only be parked in residential neighborhoods.
- Parking RVs on residential driveways is forbidden without first requesting permission from local police in writing or by phone.
- Permission can be revoked if police discover an RV is in disrepair or a danger to people or other vehicles, among other reasons.
- Recreational vehicles cannot be parked in driveways for more than one day at a time, and only so that the vehicles can be loaded, unloaded, cleaned or maintained; the limit previously had been 48 hours.
- Only one RV can be parked at any residence at once, unless one RV is towing another.
- People can only have RVs parked in their driveways for 14 days each year.
For that last rule, any part of a day counts as a whole day, Village Administrator Robert Palmer said. Previously, RV parking was limited to two weeks per year on dates that are at least six months apart.
Violators can be fined up to $500 for each day rules are broken.
Read more here.
Our village really needs to look into horse trailer parking when it comes to the number of trailers allowed and setbacks. We spent years looking out our dining room windows and seeing a huge rusting trailer on flat tires that never moved until the owner moved.
On the one hand, it is clear that residents may experience inconvenience from vehicles parking in their area. However, for owners of mobile homes, these rules may be an unpleasant surprise, I am glad that I learned about this rule in time. In addition, fines up to $500 a day for violating the rules seem excessively high.