RVs Cleared From Park & Ride Lot After Rohnert Park Council Vote

ROHNERT PARK, CA — Following a recent rash of deaths on the SMART train tracks in Rohnert Park and a City Council vote banning overnight parking at public lots in the city, a group of mainly homeless people camping in RVs was cleared earlier this week from the Roberts Lake Road Park & Ride lot near the SMART train tracks.

City Council voted 4-0 — one council member was absent — July 23 to approve a resolution establishing "No Overnight Parking Areas" in lots at the Roberts Lake Road Park & Ride, Rohnert Park Community Center, Rohnert Park Senior Center, Goldridge Recreation Center and Spreckels Performing Art Center.

In a phone interview Thursday morning with Patch, Rohnert Park police Chief Tim Mattos explained that following approval of the resolution, which prohibits parking from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. in the aforementioned lots, staff with the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety immediately began addressing the issue by making contact with the occupants of an average of 13 or 14 motorhomes regularly parked overnight in the Roberts Lake Road lot next to the SMART tracks.

• ALSO SEE: Fifth Person Hit, Killed By SMART Train In Sonoma County

"We started notifying people who were camping — living in motorhomes — and we worked with them over the next couple of weeks, and said that on the 12th [of August] we were going to have to start enforcing that," Mattos said. "It was a long process to prepare people. We worked diligently with outreach workers, with my staff, to give people time."

Because many of the affected RVers waited until the evening of the 11th to leave, the chief said he understands why to some people it would seem as if the lot was cleared out overnight.

"No motorhomes were towed or taken from people," Mattos said. "It took time for them to find places."

The lot now sits empty — with the exception of 15 unaffected parking spots at the front of the park and ride — and is blocked off by police cars and concrete barriers until potentially hazardous materials are also cleared out, according to the chief.

"When we went in, there was quite of bit of garbage," Mattos said. "It caused us some health and safety concerns. One of the main concerns was some of the human waste."

That same concern was expressed by one of three residents who spoke about the issue during the public comments portion of the July 23 City Council meeting. Two residents said they were in favor of the overnight parking ban, one saying she was concerned about the hazardous waste left by RV users. Another resident expressed concern about the conditions endured by homeless people.

• ALSO SEE: 3 Arrested After Dumping Raw RV Sewage Into Storm Drain: SRPD

According to a city staff report in support of prohibiting overnight parking in city-owned lots, City Council was advised to restrict parking only between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. daily because those hours allow for late-evening use of the Community Center and Performing Arts Center while also accommodating transit schedules in Rohnert Park (the earliest commuter buses currently arrive in Rohnert Park after 4 a.m.).

"Establishing and posting use hours will allow City staff to ticket and remove vehicles that are parked during restricted hours and help ensure that the parking lots serve their intended purpose," wrote Mary Grace Pawson, director of Development Services for the city of Rohnert Park.