A new parking rule in Lompoc inadvertently clashes with a separate protocol that allows RVs on streets in residential neighborhoods, one city official recently argued.
In late October, the Lompoc City Council amended the city’s parking restrictions to require any vehicle parked on the street to move at least 150 feet every 72 hours. Lompoc’s municipal code prior to that enforced the 72-hour limit, but without a clear distance requirement.
The new rule was meant to prevent people from moving “only a few inches or a foot every 72 hours” to evade being cited or towed, City Attorney Jeff Malawy told the council.
Staff’s original suggestion was to enforce a 300-foot threshold. Councilmember Victor Vega asked for a 150-foot limit instead. His requested amendment passed 5-0. Following the vote, Vega asked staff to agendize a discussion about the city’s current RV policies.
At the council’s Nov. 4 hearing, City Attorney Malawy outlined “an unintended conflict or discrepancy” between the new parking restriction and Lompoc’s fee procedure for residents to register RVs for legal parking.
For $55, Lompoc residents can obtain a two-year permit to park an RV on the street within 100 feet of their homes.
“With 100 feet on either side of your house that you’re allowed to park your RV with your permit, if you have to move it 150 feet in 72 hours, it only gives you a little 50-foot window for you to move your vehicle,” Malawy said.
After Malawy told the council that he’ll “look into figuring out how best to fix that,” Vega proposed amending the city’s RV policy further with an incentive that exempts RV permit holders from the 72-hour protocol.
“Give them some feeling that they’re doing something right,” Vega said, “and that there’s some sort of exception compared to someone who just has a broke-down RV on the street that hasn’t been moved in a long time.”
Vega said he believed it was unfair to require RV permit holders to move their RV every three days while also paying the $55 fee every two years.
“I’m not advocating for permanent storage on the streets. What I wanted was some sort of separation,” Vega said. “There has to be a little bit more of a benefit.”
Lompoc Police Chief Kevin Martin told the council that those who buy the city’s RV permits are informed that having a permit does not bypass the 72-hour parking law for the state of California.
“I think sometimes we get into these conversations and we lose track of what the ordinances were intended to do in the first place,” said Martin, who described the permit fee procedure as not meant to punish RV owners.
“It was meant to give them the benefit of having them close to their homes as long as they can prove that the RV belonged to them,” Martin continued. “How many times have we driven down the outskirts of the city and have seen RVs that do not belong to residents parked on our streets, and we see gray water being poured out. We see illegal utility hookups. We see all those things.”
The fee policy helps law enforcement make RV owners “accountable who are not residents of this community, in the sense of owning a property,” Martin said.
“And I don’t think anything less of anybody that decides to live like that,” he clarified, “but they need to do it within the confines of the law.”
With a 5-0 vote, the council directed City Attorney Malawy to look into ways to improve Lompoc’s RV permit procedure while staying consistent with state law and to bring back a comprehensive presentation on Lompoc’s parking restriction policies related to all types of vehicles.
Malawy suggested limiting the presentation to RVs, box trucks, and oversized vehicles, before Councilmember Steve Bridge requested a deep dive on all vehicles.
“That gets pretty broad if we’re going to talk about all parking rules for all vehicles,” Malawy said. “But if that’s what you’d like us to bring back, then we can.”
This article appears in Nov 13 – Nov 20, 2025.