Lewis County Considers Change in Rules for Extended RV Stays

Isabel Vander Stoep, The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash.
·3 min read

Jul. 10—Your mother-in-law is in town.

However you feel about that, it's nice to remember she brought her RV, where she'll dwell for the duration of the visit.

Current rules in Lewis County allow temporary RV-dwelling for up to 60 days on private property or for 180 days in an RV park. Property owners can also rent out their RVs as short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs, for fewer than 30 days at a time.

Anything beyond those stretches dips into permanent residence, which is legal in Lewis County with the proper permitting.

To up safety measures, ensure compliance with the growth management act and to align with several other nearby counties, Lewis County Senior Long-Range Planner Mindy Brooks presented an idea from community development on Monday to the county commissioners. If implemented, the change would shorten temporary stays on private property from 60 consecutive days to just 14 days in a month.

Separately, the county is considering extending temporary RV park stays from 180 to 210 days before permanent stay permitting is needed.

The 14-day period is not based on anything scientific, Brooks said, but would increase community development's ability to track and enforce code violations. Specifically, she said, they want to address the issue of sewage being dumped on the ground.

"Somebody living in it without any permits or without any information to the county, that 60 consecutive days, time and time again for our code and legally, it was very difficult to prove," said Meja Handlen, director of Lewis County Public Health & Social Services.

Before the plan could be adopted, it will go through a long list of legal processes. Brooks' intention on Monday was to suss out the commissioners' feelings about this change. For either permanent or temporary dwelling in RVs, residents aren't required to hook up to septic or water systems, but are still required to meet county health code.

Commissioner Scott Brummer had concerns with the proposal given that it limits what private property owners are allowed to do with their land.

"There's certainly plenty of people who would come and put an RV and have family members come stay for more than 14 days while they're on vacation. And now that's going to become illegal?" Brummer asked. "I have a problem with that."

Brummer later said he's cognizant that long-term dwelling in RVs without meeting code requirements is an issue in Lewis County that needs to be addressed, but he'd like to come up with a process that neither penalizes landowners nor creates another layer of permitting for community development staff.

When his mother lost her husband, Brummer said, she came to stay in her RV for "a heckuva lot more than 15 days" until she felt comfortable living alone.

"I gotta come in and get a permit? That's my property, I'm the one that pays taxes on it," Brummer said.

Handlen said the rule change idea came up after complaints from neighbors specifically to do with the consecutive 60-day timeline and recognized the issue is going to be politically charged for some Lewis County residents.

Commissioner Sean Swope noted that with the 14 days in a month rule, residents could technically stay a total of 28 days if they split time between the end of one month and the start of the other.

Brooks chuckled at that and said, "All code has loopholes."

Brummer agreed to meet with Brooks and other community development staff to workshop the code further. If the county decides to adopt the rule change, it wouldn't be finalized until at least December of this year.