Several Jefferson residents voiced concerns at the most recent city council meeting about some proposed changes to one particular zoning area.

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended changing regulations of where property owners could park their campers, recreational vehicles, boats and trailers. City Administrator Scott Peterson says the changes were not allowing those types of vehicles to be parked within the front yard 30-foot setback from a property line. The other change would be to allow those vehicles to be parked on a side or rear part of the property and on hard surfaces such as crushed rock, concrete or asphalt. Peterson points out these changes would also impact residents who live on corner lots because those two areas would be considered the front yard.

Peterson talks about why these proposed changes came about from the Planning and Zoning Commission.

“Those campers that have been parked in the current location for a long, long time. Oftentimes (for) months on end, they may be parked there and just wouldn’t move. That raised a concern, which kind of ties into the second concern at least raised by the planning and zoning folks, dealt with sight distance. And if folks are parking their campers in the front yard that’d have some impact on sight distance, especially as motorists would be approaching corners.” 

Peterson adds the Council directed this matter to go before the city’s housing committee that Councilmembers Darren Jackson and Harry Ahrenholtz serve on, due to no councilmembers being a part of the Planning and Zoning Commission.