Elon’s town council dispensed with a number of items of old business this week, including a months-long debate over recreational vehicles that began with a resident’s complaint in the fall of 2025.
This resident of the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction had originally contacted the town’s planning department about RVs that were parked in front of several neighboring homes in apparent violation of Elon’s land management ordinance.
A subsequent inquiry by the department’s staff revealed dozens of similar violations both inside the town and in its ETJ, which is subject to Elon’s land management ordinance although it lies outside the town’s corporate limits.
The town’s planning staff initially tried to address these unwitting breaches by moving the rules for RVs to the town’s code of ordinances, which applies strictly to Elon’s municipal limits. The council overruled this suggestion when it came up in February and, instead, instructed the town’s planning staff to hold some community meetings to elicit feedback for a new set of restrictions on recreational vehicles.
The council received the results of these brainstorming sessions in early September. These provisions proposed to allow residents to park RVs, campers, and similar vehicles within their driveways as long as they remain at least 20 feet from the roadway. The owners of these vehicles would also be forbidden to hook them to water or sewer services, and they’d have to surmount an additional regulatory hurdle if the RV in question no longer runs.
The council voted 4-to-1 to accept these rules with a few minor changes and clarifications when they were first presented on September 8.
Under state law, the council had to reiterate its approval at a subsequent meeting because the amended rules for RVs carry criminal penalties. Its members ultimately met this statutory requirement with another 4-to-1 decision when the new rules came up for a “second reading” on Monday. As before, the lone vote of dissent was cast in this case by Elon’s mayor pro tem Monti Allison.
[Story continues below special subscription offer.]
MORE LOCAL NEWS ABOUT THE TOWN OF ELON THAN YOU’LL FIND ANYWHERE ELSE! SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
There weren’t any dissenters when the council turned its attention to a new animal control ordinance that the town’s staff had drawn up to bring Elon in line with Burlington, which has taken over animal control services within the smaller community. This ordinance, which received its first reading on September 8, obtained the council’s final approval in a 5-to-0 decision on Monday.
In the meantime, the council gave its unanimous blessing to a new set of restrictions on food trucks – which, like the rules for RVs, had previously been part of the town’s land management ordinance.
In this case, the council accepted the planning staff’s recommendation to transfer the rules to the town’s code of ordinances, where they could be reconciled with existing regulations for push carts. The planning staff went on to overhaul those regulations and unveiled the results to the council on September 8.
The council, for its part, suggested replacing the ordinance’s criminal sanctions with civil fines. Its members proceeded to adopt these newly-decriminalized regulations in a 5-to-0 decision on Monday.
