NEW ROCHELLE, NY (June 27, 2026) — Three days after the New Rochelle City Council unanimously adopted a law restricting long-term parking of recreational vehicles, the RV that prompted complaints behind the measure remains parked on Church Street across from Trinity School.
The council approved the ordinance at its June 16 Regular Legislative Meeting, amending Section 312-43 of the City Code to make it unlawful to park, store, or leave standing a recreational vehicle on any public street, highway, roadway, or other public property in a residential area for more than one hour.
City Manager Wilfredo Melendez told the council the amendment was intended to “establish clear and forcible standards” addressing the long-term parking of recreational vehicles on public property.
Melendez said the city examined its code to more clearly define oversized and recreational vehicles and incorporate those definitions into existing restrictions, allowing enforcement against long-term RV parking. He said the city has seen the problem emerge locally and wanted “to be on top of it,” noting New York City has faced similar issues.
Council Member Albert A. Tarantino Jr., who sponsored the amendment, said the council had received complaints for roughly a year and a half about recreational and commercial vehicles, including tractor-trailers parked on streets and recreational vehicles where people were living in them or parking them for a week at a time, “just moving them a couple of feet forward, a couple of feet back.”
Tarantino said the city’s existing code made it “very difficult” to enforce the rules officials believed were already in place, and that the amendment was intended to correct that. He also suggested the city consider publicizing designated parking areas for commercial vehicles, noting the city had previously allocated space in public lots for that purpose.
Despite the new restrictions, a resident wrote to this publication saying the RV that prompted many of the complaints has been parked on Church Street for roughly two years and has not moved for the past three months. The resident said the vehicle’s occupant has two large dogs that hang out of the windows and bark at passersby, and that the dogs are occasionally let out to defecate on the sidewalk, where the occupant also disposes of garbage. The resident said NRPD has taken no action despite reports from multiple people, and that parking tickets issued to the vehicle have been removed.
A photo sent by the reader, reviewed by this publication, shows the RV, a Forester model, still parked on Church Street, with what appears to be parking tickets tucked under a windshield wiper.
Captain J. Collins Coyne, commander of the NRPD Criminal Investigations Division, confirmed in a Friday evening email that officers were aware and addressing it.
This article was prepared with the assistance of AI tools under the direction and editing of Robert Cox.
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