By TOM HOWARD
Of The Gazette Staff

The City Council hopes its revised camping ordinance will extend a "welcome to Billings" sign to owners of recreational vehicles. At the same time, local merchants say the regulations give them the tools to shoo away RV owners who overstay their welcome.

The cornerstone of the new RV camping ordinance, approved on first reading Monday, is a 10-hour rest period that allows RV owners to stay temporarily in private parking lots. An ad hoc committee that studied the issue over several months had recommended a six-hour rest period. But the council decided that a longer rest period would be easier to enforce and would save RV owners from heading back on the road before they're fully rested.

"I do not believe a six-hour rest period is safe," said Ward 5 Councilman Don Jones.

The council approved the ordinance on a 9-1 vote. Jones was the lone dissenter, saying he didn't think the ordinance is necessary. Councilman Chris "Shoots" Veis did not attend Monday's meeting.

Mike Ray, manager of the Heights Wal-Mart and a member of the ad hoc RV committee, said he wouldn't object to the longer rest period, and other committee members also said the six-hour limit shouldn't be etched in stone.

"The consensus of the committee was a six-hour stay," said committee member Mike Gast, who is communications director of Billings-based Kampgrounds of America. "If that's not long enough, it's up to the City Council to decide."

The council also directed staff to draft an amendment that would allow the council to suspend the ordinance by resolution for special occasions, such as when RV conventions are held in Billings. The ordinance, and the amendment, will be considered on second reading in two weeks.

The city's effort to limit illegal camping has been the talk of the RV community for months. Last summer RV owners from across the country threatened to boycott Billings after the city began enforcing its RV camping ordinance, which has been on the books since 1967.

The earlier ordinance, part of the city's traffic code, outlawed RV camping within the city limits except in licensed campgrounds. The ordinance had been largely ignored until the summer of 2004 when the owners of local RV parks complained to the city about large number of RV owners camping illegally at the city's two Wal-Mart parking lots.

Campground owners argued that they were losing business and Billings is losing bed tax revenue because of the illegal camping.

"We do want people to come to town," said Karen Sanford Gall, a member of the ad hoc committee. "There's room for flexibility," she said. On the other hand, "There are people who are residing in parking lots, and some of them are scary folks."

But not everybody was happy with the new regulations.

RV owner Clarence Brown of Billings said he didn't see a need for a city ordinance to restrict RVs from parking in private lots. "We're missing the boat. We should be welcoming RVers. We should be grateful that they do park here," he said.

Brown said some people who travel by RV don't need all of the services available at licensed campgrounds. The campgrounds should offer cheaper services for short-term visitors, he said.

"It hurts me to spend $30 to stay for eight hours," Brown said.

Former City Councilman Dave Brown dismissed the camping ordinance as "ridiculous." He said RV owners will simply drive down the road a few miles and stay in the proposed Laurel Wal-Mart's parking lot.

In other business, the council approved a $96,000 change order to compensate JTL Group Inc., the general contractor on the South Billings Boulevard project.

Public Works Director Dave Mumford said the project was delayed because it took longer than anticipated to move private utilities along South Billings Boulevard.

Published on Tuesday, March 14, 2006.
Last modified on 3/14/2006 at 12:33 am

And here's my two cents = We arrived in Billings at about 11:30pm dog tired last October '05. I saw the signs and then hunted up security and was told the same thing as other RVers. Stay the night pay $500 - do not pass go, go directly to jail. We drove another hour past exhaustion to a rest area westbound. Slept 5 hours next to a rattling semi and got moving again. We were under some time constraints and couldn't break for to long. We decided to boycott Billings on our semiannual trips to see the grandkids. I absolutely refuse to pay $6 an hour to sleep in my RV. We stay in RV parks when time and circumstance permitting but KOA is shooting themselves in the foot if they believe they can force RVers to comply to their economic aspirations.