> The Real Bev wrote
> > Ed Stasiak wrote
> >
> > That's been the law in my home town in metro Detroit
> > for years, you have to store your boat or camper in
> > the garage and if it don't fit, then it will have to
> > go to a storage facility.
>
> Rotten place to live.

Not at all, it keeps the city from looking like a storage
lot.

> A man's motorhome ought to be his castle.

But I shouldn't have look at you blue tarp wrapped castle
sized motorhome 364 days a year when I'm trying to relax
in my backyard.

It's the equivalent of putting a car up on cinder blocks
like a hillbilly, it's an eye-sore.

> > This is to prevent people from parking their gigantic
> > yacht or humongous camper in their driveway or backyard
> > 364 days a year, making the neighborhood look like a
> > storage lot.
>
> The city here thought it would be a good idea to pass such
> an ordinance. Then the community explained in no undertain
> terms that (a) there were no suitable storage facilities
> within 30 miles;

If you can tow that boat/camper 200+ miles when you're going
on vacation, you can tow it 30 miles to the storage lot.

> (b) people who paid $100K for a motorhome were not going
> to roll over for such a silly rule, especially since most
> homes were not designed with storage for a 34-foot motorhome
> in mind;

And people who paid 2-3x that much for their home don't
want to look out their window day after day and see your
camper/boat parked behind your garage, (out of sight for
you but right in my line of sight) wrapped in tarps with
knee high grass growing around it and varmints raising
babies underneath it.

> (c) most of the people with such vehicles were well-to-do,
> articulate and politically active;

If they can afford a camper/boat that is too large to fit
in their garage, (or build a pole-barn to store it) they
can afford to keep it at a storage lot during the off season.

My friends father-in-law has a 23' boat that when it isn't
at the marina during the summer months, is stored at a lot
a few miles away for $35 a month.

If he were to store it in his driveway, (can't get it in
the back yard) not only would it look like hell but the
trailer tongue would block the entire sidewalk.

> (d) There were a lot more large-vehicle owners than there
> were city councildroids;

But the city council exists to serve the entire community,
(the majority of whom do not own huge boats/campers) not
just a few camper/boat owners who are too cheep to store
their toys in a storage lot during the off season.

> (e) one of the councildroids himself owned such a vehicle.

See above.

> > Of course if you're on good terms with your neighbors
> > and your boat/camper isn't that big, you can get away
> > with it.
>
> We should NOT have to depend on the kindness of our
> neighbors to not tattle when we violate some rule that
> should never have been made.

The ordnance was passed because even if it's a brand-new
boat or camper, it's an eye-sore when it's sitting there
all year long and of course there are those who would fill
their yard with broken-down cars, boats, campers, ect.
simply because they are junk collectors.

But why should I have my property value go down along with
my quality of life, because you want to store a behemoth
motorhome or the Love Boat in your backyard or driveway?

> Selective enforcement is improper in a free society.

The ordnance in my town (and I assume this is pretty much
the case throughout Michigan) is that one can park their
toy in the driveway for 4 days at a time.

But during the summer when people are regularly boating
or camping, most people just leave their toys in the
driveway all season long so they can easily move in and
out and nobody complains about it.

It's only during the off-season that one can't store
a boat or camper in the driveway or backyard and in the
northern 'burbs of Detroit, where many people have 1-2+
acre lots, this rule is almost never enforced.

And even here in a heavily urbanized city, I see many
people getting away with storing pop-up campers or
smaller boats all year long in their backyards (usually
on a cement pad tucked away behind the garage).

I stored my friends pop-up camper on my driveway (in
the back yard) all last winter and none of my neighbors
had a problem with it, but then I don't get in feuds
with them.