SANTA FE SPRINGS — Transients may not camp in tents, make-shift structures or sleep in vehicles on public or private property under an ordinance approved by the City Council Jan. 14.

Neighboring Whittier has approved a similar law aimed mostly against living in vehicles parked on public streets. However, the City Council Jan. 12 did approve a request from the Whittier Elks Lodge to allow overnight parking and habitation in recreational vehicles on their lot.

In a written report to the City Council, Santa Fe Springs Police Services Director Fernando Tarin said camping along railroad tracks, freeways and on public and private properties has become a problem, with transients living on those sites and creating trash, health hazards, an increase in crime and erecting “unsightly” dwelling structures. The latter is primarily along railroad tracks and freeway rights-of-way.

Currently city law does not address the encampment issue and has to rely on no trespassing laws, Tarin said.

Those laws are difficult to enforce since property owners must post “no trespassing” signs and personally notify the campers that they must clean up the area and leave.

Usually the transients are not around to notify, thus leaving the cleanup and costs as the responsibility of the property owners, Tarin said.

Besides transient encampments, staff has found a number of registered sexual offenders living in their vehicles or RVs parked on city streets and on private properties in the mostly industrial southern part of the city.

This allows them to comply with the rules of Proposition 83, known as Jessica’s Law, which prohibits them from living within 1,000 feet of a school, park or place where children regularly gather, Tarin said.

The new laws state that “no person shall occupy public property or railroad property for habitation” and “no person shall reside in a vehicle or structure on public property except as part of a city event.”

Also no one may store personal items on public property.

In Whittier, the City Council Jan. 12 unanimously approved an anti-camping ordinance aimed at people sleeping and storing personal items on public property and living in their vehicles parked on public streets or parks.

In a written report to the City Council, Police Chief David Singer noted that anti-camping and living in vehicle laws were actually approved in the city in 1985 and 1996.

But enforcement of those laws came under study the past year as police and other city departments received numerous complaints of people living in vehicles on public and private streets, parking lots and other places open to public access, Singer said.

The Jan. 12 action calls for making the existing laws tougher, clearer and more specific.

“Additional and more specific definitions within the ordinance will provide a clearer understanding of the ordinance and increase successful prosecution,” he added.

Exempted from the anti-camping laws are city-sponsored events or events on private property for which the owners have obtained a city permit.

Also, a new section specifically addressing unlawful camping by vehicle habitation, whether temporary or permanent, on any street, public property, public place or anywhere open to the public, Singer said.

The ordinance states that unlawful camping and use of camp paraphernalia creates unsanitary conditions that threaten the health, safety and public welfare.
Overnight camping in recreational vehicles on the parking lot of the Elks Lodge, 13620 Whittier Blvd., is a different situation.

The Elks Lodge, in a commercial district at the southwest corner of Whittier Boulevard and Barton Road, often allows members and other guests to spend the night in an RV on their lot, often for a fee, said Jeff Collier, director of community development.

In a written report to the City Council, Collier said “the Elks commonly allow short-term RV camping for their members within their parking lots across the country. In many cases the lots are improved with RV electrical hook-ups and sewer connections, Collier said.

However, Whittier law has not previously allowed that.

Several area cities, such as Bellflower, Huntington Park, Montebello, Paramount, San Gabriel and Alhambra do not allow overnight parking at Elks lodges. But other cities, such as Downey, El Monte, Norwalk and Garden Grove do.

Collier noted that the Whittier lodge parking lot has five sites with electrical hookups, where RV owners may stay for up to three nights for a fee of $10 a night.

The council directed city staff to come back with proposed revisions of the zoning code to allow such uses with restrictions such as noise control, time limits on use of electric generators, limits on outdoor fires or barbecues, prohibition of clothes lines for laundry and requiring a paved surface instead of a lawn.