West Seattle Blog… | City moving back toward 72-hour parking enforcement. But will that affect West Seattle’s longest-running RV encampment?

Announced by the city today – enforcement of the 72-hour parking rule will resume in a week. The announcement said that the first priority will be “clearing unoccupied dangerous vehicles that may have been abandoned in the last 19 months”. For vehicles that are used as apartments:

Parking attendants at SDOT will not seize a vehicle with a person living in it unless it poses a specific public health risk, such as car parking. Fire, Health and Safety Risks.

So what could that mean for long-running RV camps like this next to that? Nucor steel Plant on SW Andover?

(WSB photo, this morning)

This week, Nucor’s management sent us a statement from the Vice President / General Manager Matthew Lyons, expresses his frustration with the situation. Here is what he wrote:

The West Seattle neighborhood, where Nucor Steel is located, like countless neighborhoods across the city, is experiencing the daunting task of serving the needs of those without housing in our city. At Nucor, safety is our number one core value as a company, including the safety of our teammates and our neighbors in the communities in which we operate. We are concerned that a RV warehouse on the city property along the fence line of our manufacturing facility poses a public safety threat to the camp residents, our teammates, and the surrounding neighbors. For example, Nucor teammates and contractors have been threatened with violence, and our facility has been broken into and items stolen several times. Unauthorized entry is more common and represents a significant security risk for unauthorized persons and our teammates, as we are a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week production facility.

We know that the homelessness crisis is complex and that the people who live outside face many challenges. We would like to work with the City of Seattle and local nonprofits that are helping people who are not housed find shelter for the camp residents. We believe the location of this camp presents a potential safety hazard to its residents and Nucor teammates and contractors. It would be in the best interests of the people who live in the warehouse, our business, and the West Seattle community for our company, local nonprofits, and the city to work together to find a solution.

Together with the declaration we received this letter Lyons had sent to Mayor Jenny Durkan Four months ago, it elaborated on why the company believes the RV camp meets the urban parameters for distance as an urgent hazard. A company spokesperson tells us, “Nucor made several attempts to contact several city officials before and after the letter was sent out in June, but with very limited success.”

Now comes the news that the city is reviving the 72-hour parking rule. While today’s announcement said that in most situations, park attendants will “not confiscate a vehicle that someone lives in”, does that mean there are no tickets or warnings? We brought this question to SDOT. Her response reiterated that RVs should be classified as dangerous, adding:

The first step in enforcement for any type of vehicle is to leave an official warning that gives the vehicle owner at least 72 hours to move their vehicle. If any of these vehicles are found to be living in one of these vehicles, we will provide occupants with information about assistance and support services and resources along with a warning notice or post this information on the vehicle.

Vehicles that voluntarily move to another location do not violate the 72 hour rule. If a vehicle needs to be repaired in order to be driven we will try to be flexible and cooperate with the owner and allow them a reasonable amount of time as they make good faith efforts to repair the vehicle.

We first reported on the Andover RV warehouse almost six years ago – by then, some of the vehicles were already showing orange warnings.