Thousand Oaks residents must wait a little longer for a new city-owned recreational vehicle parking and storage facility to be built.

At last week’s meeting, the city council voted to reopen the search for a company to build an RV parking lot. The firm that had been chosen earlier withdrew its proposal in March. The property was to have been leased to the operator for 45 years. The arrangement would have provided some revenue for the city.

After an interview process last fall, a proposal from Power Partners LLC was chosen from three submitted to the city. City staff will now conduct new meetings with interested companies regarding new bids.

Power Partners withdrew its proposal due to underestimating construction costs as well as the limits of the property. The six-and one-half-acre, city-owned property on Lawrence Drive in the Rancho Conejo industrial area can only accommodate about 225 spaces, according to Tom Hare, city facilities manager. He said that the industry standard is 60 spaces per acre to make such a facility economically feasible.

For this parcel to accommodate those numbers, considerable grading on the site would have been necessary.

Councilmember Dennis Gillette suggested using vacant land adjacent to the parcel. According to Hare, that land is owned by the Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD), which hasn’t yet determined how it will use the site.

"This may be an opportunity for (CVUSD) to maximize the use of an asset they have," Gillette said.

Hare said the school district would be invited to be part of the discussions in choosing a new company.

"It’s somewhat of a disappointment that this hasn’t moved ahead faster because it’s the key to the enforcement issue," said Gillette, referring to an ongoing challenge the city has faced concerning residential RV parking.

Municipal code permits RVs to be stored for 30 days in driveways or for 72 hours on those streets located in what’s termed Residential Planned Development zones (RPD). The code hasn’t been actively enforced, and many RV owners have unknowingly been parking illegally for years in side yards or backyards or for longer than 30 days in driveways.

The issue has divided RPD zone neighbors. On one side are RV owners who feel they should be permitted to park their vehicles on their property, and on the other side are neighbors who say RVs create an eyesore and a safety hazard when parked on the street.

City officials hope to alleviate the problem somewhat by building an RV storage facility. Over the past year, RV owners have spoken at city council meetings, arguing that they prefer to park their vehicles on their own properties, which were purchased specifically because of RV storage options. They also argue that many current storage facilities are full, too far away or are too expensive. There are thousands of RV owners in Thousand Oaks; many feel a new city storage facility won’t help.