City Commissioners will be asked in the coming weeks to establish a fine structure for violations of the new rules for parking recreational vehicles, utility trailers or boats in residential areas.

In October, the commission voted 4-1 to approve a new ordinance that prohibits the parking of those large vehicles in residential districts for more than 72 hours in a seven day period.

City Commission approves new RV, large vehicle parking rules

The new rules go into effect on March 15 and enforcement will be complaint driven, similar to several other code enforcement aspects of the city code, to include the existing process for junk and abandoned vehicles; large vehicle parking violations; all property maintenance code violations; barking dogs; noise complaints and more.

In the case of a violation, the new rules provide that a written notice will be provided that requires the removal of the vehicle within 24 hours and advises that a parking citation will be issued if it’s not removed.

When the commission approved the new rules, they included language that allows the commission to set any fines for those citations to be set by resolution.

RV parking ordinance proposal on Oct. 19 city agenda

During their March 1 meeting, commissioners will be asked to set a public hearing for March 15 on the proposed fine structure, which is:

• First citation: $50
• Second citation: $100
• Third or subsequent citation: $200

In their report, city staff provided comparisons of the fine structure for Butte-Silverbow and Helena.

Butte-Silverbow assesses a $150 fine for a first offense; and $250 for a second or subsequent offense.

City Commission delays vote on proposed RV, large vehicle parking ordinance change

According to the staff report, the fine range in Helena appears to be $25-$100.

Commissioners tackled the large vehicle parking rules after several people spoke at a public meeting about the negative impacts in their neighborhoods of allowing the large vehicles to park with limited enforcement. The city held a public hearing on the proposed ordinance in September 2020 and dozens of people provided comment for and against the changes.