St. Joseph City Commissioners have once again declined to change an ordinance that prohibits the parking of campers and RVs in front yard driveways.

At a meeting this week, commissioners heard an update from Zoning Administrator Kristen Gundersen on how enforcement of the ordinance has been going since that was changed from being complaints-based to universal this year. Gundersen said the city left flyers explaining the rule to 115 residents observed to be violating it. After a series of follow up meetings and visits, one citation was eventually issued. Gundersen said the vehicles involved varied.

“We had 40 campers, 29 boats, 46 trailers,” Gundersen said. “Most of the informational handouts were distributed before Memorial Day, with 35 delivered between Memorial Day and Labor Day.”

Commissioner Michael Fernandez once again made a push to simply change the ordinance and allow people to park campers in their front yard driveways. He calculated that enforcement of the rule cost the city $13,000 this year.

“Are we more friendly as a city because of this? No,” Fernandez said. “The 119 interactions that we had, we used to average 10 resident complaints a year.”

Fernandez said the public safety department would rather the parking of RVs in driveways be allowed. He said each officer who came to his home to ask him to move his own camper last summer said as much. However, colleagues weren’t moved.

Commissioner Michelle Binkley said she’s had residents thank her for the switch to universal enforcement of the camper rule because they didn’t want to complain about their neighbors. Binkley said the city should continue with the enforcement for another year to see how it goes. Three of the other four commissioners agreed with her, meaning the city will stay the course.