The City of Aberdeen has notified motorhome and RV owners living along the Chehalis River that they must remove their vehicles from the riverfront property, and that failure to do so would eventually result in the vehicle being impounded.

The order, signed and delivered to motorhome residents by Assistant Community Development Director Bill Sidor on Feb. 14, requested that the vehicles be moved by yesterday.

“A recreational vehicle is not a mobile home and may not be used as a residence within city limits, unless it is parked within a designated RV Park,” Sidor wrote in the letter. “The city at this time is requesting the RV to be vacated and removed from the property by Feb. 28, 2018.”

It goes on to state that failure to move it by Feb. 28 would result in an “issuance of a formal Notice and Order for the removal of the RV.”

At the end of the notice, Sidor writes that if motorhome owners do not request a public hearing by March 2, their vehicles will be impounded.

Aberdeen Mayor Erik Larson said citizens’ complaints to the city were what prompted the notices.

Larson said that the city’s code enforcement staff made the decision to send notices, which he approved of, and that he believes it is normal to enforce these types of violations.

“Parking and/or code enforcement regularly cite parking and code violations relating to motorhomes and trailers,” Larson wrote in an email. “This is not an unusual action, although the parties involved are obviously garnering more public attention than usual.”

Larson recently said he met with the riverfront property owner Mike Lang, along with other nearby property owners, to discuss future plans for the area, where dozens of people live in tents, cabins and motorhomes.

Phil Calloway, who is the executive director for Revival of Grays Harbor, assisted Sidor with delivering the notices, to what he estimated were 12 motorhome owners.

Sidor did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment, but Calloway said that Sidor told him code enforcement staff have received more calls recently complaining about the RVs.

“He did say they were getting a lot of pressure from city people because of ordinances not being upheld,” Calloway said.

Public Works Director Rick Sangder said he was not involved with issuing the notices, but said that in recent meetings the RVs often came up as an issue, including one meeting with representatives from the railroad who were concerned about homeless people rolling under moving trains in order to cross into the camp area. Sangder also said he was surprised how quickly the notices were sent out.

“I had been to a couple meetings where they talked about the RVs becoming a real nuisance, and that they didn’t belong,” said Sangder. “When the letter went out, it was a surprise to me, I didn’t realize it was at that point.”

By Wednesday afternoon, Calloway said he’s only seen one trailer leave the riverfront camp so far. According to three of the motorhome residents, no has come by to enforce the notice yet.

Chloe Morgan, who has lived in a motorhome along the river for about two months with her fiancé, said she is concerned what most of the trailer home residents will do now that they will be forced to move.

“I’m worried because a lot of people have been here for such a long time,” said Morgan. “My preference would be to ride it out. We originally came here to help people.”

LOUIS KRAUSS THE DAILY WORLD A man displays his notice from the City of Aberdeen requiring him to move his trailer home from the camps along the Wishkah River.