LEXINGTON — Erin Underwood said she can’t remember a time when her grandfather didn’t have a trailer parked in the driveway of his Lexington home.
Ed Harpster instilled a love of camping in his children and grandchildren, including Erin and her mother, Deb.
“My mom is 70 plus. My dad passed away 10 years ago and I promised my dad that I would make sure my mom got to camp for as long as she could,” Underwood said Tuesday.
“I take that trailer wherever she wants to go.”
While she said her family no longer stores trailers in town, Underwood said she’s concerned about how a proposed update to Lexington’s ordinances could impact other village residents.
The Lexington Planning Commission is considering a change in the rules governing where and how long boats, trailers and other recreational vehicles can be parked on residential property.
The planning commission has spent the last year and a half performing a comprehensive review of the village zoning code — something village Law Director John Studenmund said hasn’t been done in about 25 years.
The commission is working on several recommendations to update Lexington’s code. Mayor Bob Jarvis said those recommendations will be forwarded to village council for a vote, likely this summer.
Current ordinances allow village residents to store boats, trailers or recreational vehicles on their driveway “with an approved hard surface” in a side yard or in a backyard “during the off-season.”
Commercial trailers, including concession trailers, must be stored only within a completely enclosed building.
The proposed new rule would:
- Allow boats and recreational vehicles to be temporarily parked on a driveway with an approved hard surface for up to 30 days in each calendar year, unless stored within a garage or other storage building on the property.
- Allow utility trailers less than 20 feet in length to be stored in the rear yard of any lot, as long as it’s at least ten feet away from all property lines.
- Continue to require commercial trailers, including concession trailers, to be storied within a completely enclosed building.
The code currently defines approved hard surfaces as asphalt, Portland concrete cement, paving bricks or decorative paving stones.
Residents divided on proposed regulations
Village officials said they’ve heard concerns from multiple residents about boats and trailers negatively impacting their neighborhoods.
“The people who have talked to me, they don’t like the look of a trailer,” Jarvis said. “Many times the trailers are being worked on and torn apart in the driveways in their various states of disarray.”
Studenmund said he’s seen residents park their trailers right next to their property lines, to the chagrin of their neighbors.
“People feel like they’re camping all year round and it’s not even their (trailer),” he said. “There are (eyesore) problems, obstructive views, people can’t enjoy their property.”
Village leaders also said trailers and other recreational vehicles can impact property values, which drew skeptical remarks from several residents at the Planning Commission meeting.
“How is that possible? Your house is worth what your house is worth,” Underwood said.
Jarvis responded, “People that do appraisals take those factors into consideration.”
Several residents have attended Planning Commission meetings to voice their opposition to the proposed changes.
“We bought our properties in the Lexington village with the knowledge that we could do this — we could park our cars there or our boats or campers,” resident Laura Eichar said.
“We put money invested in this, and now it’s going to cost us money to store it somewhere else.”
Ruth Wolf told the commission 30 days a year will not allow her and her husband enough time to prepare their trailer for trips, load and unload it, clean it and perform maintenance. She said the refrigerator in a trailer has to be on for about 24 hours before it’s cool enough to use.
She also questioned how the village would fairly enforce the ordinance when some people’s vehicles are more visible than others’.
“My husband and I have a travel trailer, and we have never had anybody complain about it being there,” she said. “It’s right smack dab on the corner of Maple and Main.”
Some said residents who own boats, trailers and recreational vehicles had to work hard and save up to purchase them, arguing it wouldn’t be fair to impose an additional cost to store them elsewhere.
“A lot of people can’t afford to go camping and do all the fun stuff if they have to pay to store their trailer,” Underwood said. “There’s a lot of retired people. They’re on fixed incomes and they save their money for the summertime, so that they can go camping.”
Lexington to seek input from Richland County Regional Planning
Councilman Kim Little said he disagrees with the proposed regulation, but would abstain from a vote because he owns a box trailer, which he has stored in his driveway for over a decade.
Little uses the trailer to transport his 1928 Hupmobile to car shows across the eastern United States. He said he’s never had neighbors complain.
Rod Gerstenberger, who also sits on the Planning Commission and lives across the street from Little, said he would support a recommendation for the new rules.
“I also have a motorhome, a 21 footer Class B. I purposely said, ‘I’m never going to park it in my driveway or on my property,’ because I was conscientious of my neighbors,'” Gerstenberger said.
“I didn’t want it sitting in front of my house because it degrades the looks of my property. I like nice landscaping. I want it to look good. I don’t want that sitting in my yard.”
Another resident, Jill Kocher, also spoke in favor of the changes.
“We do have a boat and we never keep it at our property because of the appearance,” she said.
The Planning Commission did not vote on a recommendation Wednesday. It did vote to send proposed changes to the Richland County Regional Planning Commission at Studenmund’s advice.
“Regional Planning has meetings of mayors, village and township administrators, engineers, and various people from across the county and they look at all different regulations from multiple different jurisdictions,” Studenmund said. “So we’ll get their input.”
Other zoning code changes under consideration relate to farmer’s market regulations, junk in yards, in-home businesses, permitted uses in the central business district, solar energy, zoning enforcement and storage sheds.
A list of proposed changes is in the document below. Jarvis said planning commission may add a few more proposed changes before voting on final recommendations.
The Planning Commission meets the last Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m. at village hall.