Any place to RV overnite park for free around here

[trendyzworld]

Hello~

Is there any place here in West Seattle that we can have overnite parking for free? I have family visiting for about 4 days in November and unfortunately we have no room for their RV by our house. We live up by Admiral Junction.

Thanks for your assistance!

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[Sue]

Seattle Municipal Code: SMC 11.72.070 Commercial and large size vehicles.

“No person shall park a vehicle on any street or alley, except in an Industrial Zone as defined in Title 23, between the hours of midnight and six (6) a.m. if the vehicle is a truck and/or trailer or other conveyance which is over eighty (80) inches wide.”

So looks as if you’d have to find out what defines an “industrial zone” in order to find out what’s legal. Or find some off-street area that is legal.

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[JayDee]

Sue:

Really? Harbor Ave/Alki seems to be fine for all of the RVs that park there for more than three days plus. As someone observed, everything is illegal in the SMC code. Park it down there, move it once, you should be fine. Park it in an area where there are no condos (between the 7/11 and Fairmont, for instance) and you should be cool.

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[JayDee]

Most of the folks “parking” there are living there.

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[Sue]

Jay Dee, I was surprised too, since I know “everybody” parks down there. Is it somehow zoned as “industrial” where they’re parking, so they get away with it? I don’t know anything about any of that, so can’t say. I know there’s often a big difference between what is technically legal and what people get away with. I guess if the OP wants to park down there, it needs to be with the realization that they risk being ticketed, even if it’s probable (from history) that they won’t be.

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[trendyzworld]

Thanks you for the replies. We are new to WA and with guests coming to visit were curious about the RV parking situation. We have seen the RV parking up on Alki and some folks parking for longer than a few days. We are also checking out the Elks Lodge in Burien since my family is affiliated with them.

Thanks again for all the advice, much appreciated! :-)

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[skeeter]

I live in West Seattle and the folks visit every summer with the Winnebego. Here is what we do:

Option A: park on a wide residential street for a couple days. This option is not legal, but if you’re not blocking anyone’s access or creating an eyesore and the block is relatively “open,” I don’t see the problem for a day or two. It is just a question of how comfortable you are breaking a law. Just check the rig at least once a day to make sure there are no citations. We’ve only done this a couple times, before we knew it was illegal. Since learning it was illegal we haven’t done it.

Option B: you can park up to 72 hours in a commercial zone. The part of Harbor Avenue near the 7 eleven is zoned commercial as I recall. Just check with the city maps (do a google search?) to confirm the zoning. My folks drove by this area and decided they were not comfortable leaving their nice rig unattended overnight, even though it was legal.

Option C: There is an Elks lodge in Burien and Issaquah that allow overnight camping. The lodge in Burien is full 99% of the time so good luck with that. People stay there because there is water and electric hookups. The Issaquah lodge almost always has available space but there are no utilities and it’s quite a haul from West Seattle. In Issaquah you just park on a spot of grass and dry camp.

Option D: You can go to the Fred Meyer in Burien and ask the manager if you can park overnight in the back of the lot. My guess is they would allow it. But that is a guess because we’ve never tried.

On my “to do” list is to ask the city if overnight parking at the boat launch on Harbor Avenue is allowed (for a fee.) I’ve seen motorhomes there before and it looked like they were set up to spend the night.

So… it is a hassle… good luck.

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[skeeter]

Oh quick clarification – neither Elks lodge is free. But if the visitors can afford to fill the gas tank on their rig, they will likely not be bothered by the modest cost of the Elks lot.

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