The residents of the 3600 block of 248th Place Southeast are taking issue with a neighbor’s RV — it’s an eyesore, they say.

Neighbor Charles Scott calls it a “headache,” a “white whale,” a beast that could be “seen from space.”

“We’re really not an RV storage area,” Scott said. “It’s just ugly. It doesn’t fit in the neighborhood.”

The RV has been a “thorn of contention” for the neighborhood for the past couple of years, but there’s nothing the Sammamish police can do about it.

Per city code, a vehicle can sit on a public road for up to 72 hours.

Scott and neighbors say this RV’s owner skirts the law, living in the grey area, by driving around the block, moving it slightly up the street or moving it to a different block, but it always comes back, they say.

The neighborhood homeowners association can’t do anything about it because it’s on public land. The association would have authority if it were parked on private property.

So, Scott and a few of the neighbors asked the Sammamish City Council Tuesday to change the law so large motor homes can’t be permitted to park on city streets for long periods of time.

“I am here to request a change in the parking ordinance,” resident Walt Black told the council Tuesday.

Black said many cities have codes that restrict RVs like the one in his neighborhood from chronically parking on the same street.

“Large vehicles parked in residential areas detract from the appearance of a neighborhood, can be a hazard and can be a deterrent to home sales,” he said. “We would like an ordinance that clearly prohibits such parking.”

Now is the time to put in an ordinance with “some teeth,” Scott said. “This time we just have to get it done.”

A couple years ago, when the RV first appeared and sat in the neighborhood for a year without moving, Scott said, he gathered a couple hundred signatures to petition the RV’s parking spot. Then the RV disappeared for a while and he thought that was the end of it. But it keeps coming back, he said. Most recently, he said it sat in the same place for six weeks.

“It doesn’t look like it’s ever going away,” Scott said. “It feels like as if we’re sacrificing our whole neighborhood for this one individual who just doesn’t want to pay storage fees for his RV,” Scott said Tuesday.

The neighbors also contend that it creates a safety hazard, though the police and Eastside Fire and Rescue have told the neighborhood otherwise.

Marco Delabarrera lives right across the street from the owner of the RV. Delabarrera said it’s hard to see around the RV and it’s certainly a hazard when another car parks on the other side of the street from it.

“Nobody can get through. You cannot see,” he said. “This place is not designed for RVs.”

City Manager Lyman Howard said Tuesday that the city has heard comments like this from time to time. He said he’d be happy to work with the police department and to report back to council with options.

“We talk a lot about neighborhood character and I think this very much so plays into it,” Councilmember Christie Malchow said. “It does alter the neighborhood character.”

The owner of the RV could not be reached for comment.