Let’s say the neighbors invite friends to spend the weekend inside their big RV.

But danders go up when the neighbor’s relatives or friends park their RV on the property and stay in it for months.

Or when the manager of a business lets a caretaker stay on his or her lot to keep an eye on things.

Plenty of Auburn residents have been telling City Code Enforcement Officers Jason Arborgast and Chris Barrack lately that this version of RV living is bad for their neighborhoods, and they want something done about it.

The problem is that while the Auburn City Code as it now is provides definitions, permitting requirements and development regulations for RV parks, it says nothing about how the City should regulate RV living outside of RV parks.

So if the City means to act, it will have to do what other cities have done: establish regulations that describe the permitting requirements, circumstances, and durations under which they allow people to live within RVs.

Recreational vehicle living, Arborgast and Barrack told members of the Planning and Community Development Committee last week, typically occurs in two types of settings.

The first setting is within a residential neighborhood where the occupant of a single-family home allows an RV to be parked on the residential property and for another family, friends or renters to live there for an extended period of months. The second is within a commercial area, where the property owner or manager allows or arranged for a caretaker to live in an RV in a parking lot to provide enhanced security of the site and buildings.

Most cities, the two said, do not allow people to live in an RV outside of an RV park in perpetuity.

Here’s what some other cities do:

• The City of Kent allows an RV to be used as a temporary dwelling unit, provided the interval does not exceed 90 days and that the use of the RV is consistent with the underlying zone. What it means is that City of Kent lets people live in an RV in residential and mixed-use zones for up to 90 days but prohibits them from living in RVs in commercial and industrial zones.

• Puyallup allows people to use RVs as temporary lodging on the site of an active construction project but for no longer than 6 months. The City also requires that the owner obtain a temporary use permit to place the RV and to use it as temporary lodging.

• The cities of Federal Way, Renton and Tacoma do not permit anyone to live in an RV outside of an approved RV park.

“Our committee has asked City Staff to research possible code language and establish a code with health and safety standards,” said City Councilman John Holman, chairman of the Planning and Community Development Committee.