ROCKLAND — The Rockland City Council at its agenda-setting meeting at city hall on April 3 concluded that a closer look at RVs and yard sales would be appropriate for discussion at the Wednesday, April 12, meeting.

The ordinances will be in their first reading and brought forth by the city's code enforcement officer, John Root.

Currently the city allows a one week residency in a camper. Root said he used a template brought forth from Saco.

"It actually has a limit of 48 hours for anyone to stay in their camper," he said. "I thought that was a little bit stringent. I tailored this to make it reasonable and in particular to make it so people, on their own property, can stay in their campers as long as they like."

Root said there is a problem that comes up often and that is people who are staying in campers on someone else's property.

"Not visitors," he said, "but people who are actually living there. In the last 10 years, we've had two people who actually died in campers. I think this is very reasonable and make it so we are not infringing on anybody's personal rights on their personal property."

Root also said he ran the ordinance through the city attorneys and they made a few minor amendments.

"We end up with people staying in campers all summer," he said. "We do get calls on it. I don't like regulations any more then anyone else. We have difficulty because I have to sight the regulations for minimum sizes for houses and there is just no comparison. We need something a little bit more specific."

Root said the city has been kicking people out of campers for a number of years.

"People come and stay for a week; if it becomes two I don't think it's going to be an issue," he said. "I asked Saco how they enforced the 48 hours and they said 'they don't.' I’d rather have something that's enforceable."

Root said he would be available next Wednesday night to answer additional questions.

Moving on to the next item, again Root told councilors that the city has no regulations on yard sales.

"Someone could conceivably have a yard sale for the entire summer," said Root. "It amounts to retail sales and that's what we've gone after them for."

Mayor Will Clayton said his concerns related to frequency and how much to regulate yard sales, in general.

"We know what this is really about," he said. "It's so somebody doesn't have massive amount of things on their yard and call it a yard sale. We need something to verify it."

Root said it also makes clear that you buy things and then sell them.

"What happens in some cases is that people are selling things that they bought at a good price, and are selling them for retail," he said. "A yard sale is intended for what we all use it for: To weed out and get rid of our junk. It seems petty, but they're issues we've tried to deal with for years and I'm just trying to make it easier for us to enforce them."

Councilors were comfortable with allowing yard sales four times a year. Full discussion and first reading will take place at the April 12 regular meeting.