Sausalito has tightened its ban on vehicle habitation.
The City Council voted 4 to 1 on Oct. 7 to revise sections of a 1969 law barring people from living and cooking in their vehicles.
The revisions newly define “what it means to use a vehicle as a place of human habitation,” the staff report by police Chief Stacie Gregory said, and they remove a section of the law that prohibits parking for more than eight hours on city streets.
The eight-hour limit clashed with state law, City Attorney Sergio Rudin said. Instead, the city’s current 72-hour parking ban will remain.
“The city does have an overall 72-hour parking limit for all our vehicles on public streets, which the city has used to ensure that vehicles are timely moved and do not become an eyesore,” he said. “And that vehicles that are broken down or otherwise not maintained do not litter the city streets.”
The revisions expand the list of activities that constitute using a vehicle “as a place of human habitation.” That list is in response to a 2014 federal court decision that overturned Los Angeles’ habitation ban, Rudin said.
The city’s new list includes “more than one of the following activities,” a staff report said. “Possessing inside or on a vehicle items that are not associated with ordinary vehicle use, such as a sleeping bag, bedroll, blanket, sheet, pillow, kitchen utensils, cookware, or cooking equipment, or obscuring some or all of the vehicles windows.”
Sausalito police have said they do not want to stalk unhoused people living on streets but want better options to remove longtime offenders.
Councilmember Melissa Blaustein said she could not support the code revisions.
“I truly appreciate the Sausalito Police Department and their dedication and commitment to our community and the way they lead with compassion,” she said. “That being said, I think they’re doing an excellent job without an additional ordinance that criminalizes things like keeping a sleeping bag in your car.”
Vice Mayor Steven Woodside was concerned about removing the eight-hour parking limit, even if it was not enforceable. He has said the implementation of a new San Francisco ordinance intended to remove hundreds of vehicles from its streets could push some of them to Sausalito.
“When we eliminate the eight-hour rule, we might have some unintended consequences,” he said. “What concerns me is parking of oversized vehicles on our narrow streets. I don’t have a solution in mind.”
Woodside asked the city attorney and police chief to “take a look and be able to advise us on what alternatives we might have … that would be useful here in our town.”
“I would agree … that we remain agile as this moves forward and see how this works out,” said Councilmember Jill Hoffman.