SEQUIM — New parking and abandoned vehicle rules will take effect soon now that the City Council has approved measures giving the city more control over vehicles on city streets and public parking lots.

Essentially, nobody will soon be able to legally park an RV or boat trailer in the same spot on a city street for more than 24 hours at a time without a permit.

The Sequim Police Department and council members started looking at the issue when considering what to do about a number of abandoned vehicles around town, and decided to update parking rules as well.

The ordinances apply only to public rights of way and city-owned property.

City leaders said Monday night that they will look next at nuisance and abatement laws for private property.

To qualify as abandoned, a vehicle must meet three requirements from a list of criteria.

A vehicle is considered abandoned if it is registered to someone who doesn’t live in Sequim or is parked more than two blocks away from the registered owner, or has a registration expired for more than 30 days.

It’s also deemed abandoned if it is inoperative, is in the same place for 30 days, is being used as a storage container, has damage to the exterior, windows or tires, or is wrecked or partially dismantled.

The city will be required to give written notice that a car is going to be impounded.

Parking ordinances

Council members took the opportunity to review other parking ordinances as well and implemented some new rules.

Under the new rules, recreational vehicles, boats and trailers cannot be parked on city streets or public parking lots for more than 24 hours without a permit.

If those vehicles are parked at homes, they must be parked on a driveway or pad and cannot block a sidewalk or an alley.

Furthermore, commercial vehicles can only park in a spot for two hours out of any 24-hour period.

The new regulations will take effect five days after they are published as legal advertisements.