As Mountain View rolls out its plan to move hundreds of residents living in RVs and vehicles off the city’s streets, it’s looking to private landowners to step up.

Under the city’s proposed zoning amendments for its safe parking program, private landowners who get the necessary permits could open up their parking lots overnight to house residents living in their vehicles.

But without any incentives for the landowners, the city has received very little interest.

“There have been challenges in getting large lot owners to participate, but we’re doing our best to alleviate some of their concerns,” Kimberly Thomas, the assistant to the city manager, told the city’s environmental planning commission Wednesday.

Ahead of an overnight ban on oversized vehicles, which is expected to go into effect in January, the city is establishing a safe parking program to accommodate some of the residents who will inevitably be displaced.

The city plans to offer about 80 parking spaces once all the lots are up and running by the end of this year. However, about half of those spaces are on temporary lots that will no longer be available after March. And with more than 200 residents living in RVs, many will be left without a place to stay overnight within the city limits.

In June, the city council directed staff to draft an overnight ban of oversized vehicles — those measuring more than 7 feet high, 7 feet wide and 22 feet in length — on city streets from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. every night starting Jan. 1, 2020. The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing for that ordinance and the safe parking program on Sept. 24.

Mountain View currently offers about 20 safe parking spaces for vehicle and RV dwellers across three faith-based properties and a temporary, Palo Alto Housing Corporation site on Terra Bella Avenue.

The city also plans to add two city-owned lots — a lot at the Shoreline Amphitheater and another at the former Valley Transit Authority lot at Pioneer Way and Evelyn Avenue — that are expected to provide up to 60 additional spaces.

Private landowners who want to participate in the program will be required to obtain separate permits from the city’s zoning administrator and the city’s police department. They will be required to provide notice to anyone within a 750-foot radius and meet the city’s safe parking requirements, including some basic health and safety regulations, spacing restrictions and a prohibition on vehicles that leak sewage.

The city hopes that through additional education, outreach and a clear set of guidelines set forth in the zoning amendments expected to be passed by the city council later this month, more interest will emerge.

But some of the environmental planning commissioners urged city staff to consider offering incentives to private landowners to encourage their participation.

“Land is our most valuable commodity here and if we’re talking about the public right of way, we’re not going to be able to solve anything until we can understand what it would take for a private landowner to engage and what kind of incentives they’re looking for,” Commissioner Preeti Hehmeyer said.

What has stirred the most controversy is the safe parking ordinance’s requirement that the lots only be open for vehicle and RV dwellers from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., forcing them to move their vehicles during the day.

More than two dozen residents went before the city’s environmental planning commission earlier this week to ask the city to offer more protection for those living in vehicles. Many of the residents held signs that read “24/7,” asking the city to provide spaces for the vehicle dwellers around the clock.

“All vehicle dwellers need stability,” Jackie Cashen, a member of the Mountain View Housing Justice Coalition, said during the meeting. “A 24-hour parking situation is the only thing that’s going to provide that.”

Although the vast majority of residents supported the program, at least one resident spoke out against it.

Resident Cin Smith discouraged the city from expanding the program, saying that those living in their vehicles should move to other cities in California where they can afford to live.

“Doing anything like this to incur more of these people is not helping us,” Smith said of the vehicle dwellers. “Getting rid of the ones we have is what we want to do.”

The environmental planning commission approved the staff-recommended zoning amendments for the safe parking program on Wednesday but also asked staff to look into some modifications, including what it would take to operate the city-owned lots around the clock.

“I think this ordinance has been written to match the reality of where we are today, but I still think that we have hearts large enough and brains smart enough that we can think beyond this,” Vice Chair Robert Cox said.