Coral Springs city commission expresses negative views over recreational vehicle pilot program

Coral Springs, Florida – Coral Springs has allowed owners of boats, trailers, motor homes, and other recreational vehicles to park their vehicles on residential driveways over the weekends, over the past six months.

In February, city commissioners allowed the ban to be lifted for a year as a pilot program.

That means: boats and recreational vehicles are temporarily allowed to be parked on residential driveways after 9 p.m. on Friday until 6 a.m. on Monday, so the owners can prepare and clean their boats and recreation vehicles on their driveways before or after taking them out for use.

According to city officials, this week, there were about 65 violators of the program (those who parked their boats and recreation vehicles on driveways past the days allowed) in February and about 35 violators this month.

Despite the drop in violators, Commissioner Shawn Cerra and Vice Mayor Joshua Simmons urged the city to drop the program that is supposed to go on for another six months and reinstate the ban. Cerra argued that the pilot initiative is draining the time of the city’s code enforcement and police staff in chasing down the violators instead of focusing on other matters.

“I believe it’s not working,” he said. “If we make people comfortable with another six months, it’s going to be harder to reserve course on this.”

According to Simmons, the pilot program is “creating too much confusion.”

But other commissioners and Mayor Scott Brook supported continuing with the lifting of the ban until Feb. 16 when it is set to be sunset unless commissioners approve a permanent measure to allow residents to park their boats and recreational vehicles through the weekend.

In the end, commissioners decided not to change anything and allow the pilot program to go on as planned.

According to city officials, they plan to do a survey of residents to get their feelings about the ban. “I’d like to get more public input about it working or not working,” Brook said.