Port of San Diego Rewrites Parking Rules to Kick Out Vanlifers

Screenshot: Van Kookz YouTube

Vanlife has exploded in the last few years, especially during the pandemic. Millennials and Gen Z flocked to vans, buses, and ambulances after being priced out of housing due to rising housing costs. As things slowly returned to normal, some found that living life that way didn’t quite work for them. But in some parts of the country, vanlifers never let up. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that vanlifers at the Port of San Diego have become a nuisance to both port officials and local residents. Parking rules are being changed to kick them out.

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San Diego’s Shoreline Park has attracted a number of vanlifers the last couple of years. The park is attractive because of its view of San Diego Bay and the 24 hours of free parking at nearby Shelter Island. Most importantly, it’s safe. “This is the safest place where you can go to bed and not worry about anybody breaking into your van,” one vanlifer told the Union-Tribune. He made his way down from Washington for the warmer weather of Southern California. While the people that live in these vehicles may feel like they’re free to do and chill the way they want, they’ve created a headache for local officials and residents.

People who live in the community have complained to The Port of San Diego over vanlifers with serious and valid issues. There’s human waste left in lots, fumes from the exhaust of idling vans, and the smell of weed smoke. Worse yet, the Port has to cover the cost of hazardous waste teams coming out to clean up. Maintenance and landscaping have a hard time as well, as they often have to work around the vanlifers or deal with them when they’re angry, or worse. Like dealing with hidden bags of poop that get on them while their working. “My guys, they periodically are trimming shrubs and they got fecal matter splattered (on them) because it was embedded in the shrub,” explained one port official.

None of this should last much longer as the Port passed new parking regulations on April 11. Under the new rules, port commissioners redefined the definitions for large vehicles to include any vehicle longer than 20 feet, higher than 7.5, and wider than seven feet. Parking hours have been changed as well, eliminating the 24-hour free parking as well as requiring that vehicles park hedging in only. The Port’s director of guest experiences Ken Wallis says the new rules should significantly curtail vanlifers. On April 7, he counted no less than 53 vanlifers at the lots who would be in violation under the new rules.

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While residents and business owners in the area praised the new rules, others took issue with them. Some, who group the vanlfers in with those who are homeless and living in their vehicles, said the commission should be sympathetic to those living situations. “After hearing members of the community speak and hearing the proposed recommendations regarding oversize vehicle parking within the port, it’s clear to me that this is less about a general parking problem and more about a homeless-people-living-in-their-vehicle problem,” said one person, whose parents live out of their car. The commission however said they took the needs of those people into account when making their decision but that the situation at the park had gotten out of hand. The new rules are expected to go into effect on May 12.