Interesting comments. I'm clearly not alone in this situation, and various flavors of this situation. Our limits are definitely 8', not 8.5'. Our limits don't require things like fencing or visually concealing the RV. Christ NJ sounds like a nazi state. I'm *from* NJ, and spent a quarter century of my life there, but didn't develop the RV bug there tho. Clearly, I would not get along w/ your neighbors!
I'm a little surprised to hear that the larger RV's require special (commercial?) permits to drive, as I've really never heard many people explicitely mention pursuing things like commercial licensing along with buying an RV. I guess it makes sense to have folks owe up to the same level of competency as others if their rigs have the same characteristics.
My ordinances are governed by the County, not the HOA. Thankfully, for alot of reasons, I don't have an HOA in this neighborhood. The county officials come close enough, thank you very much. While I find myself fairly conventional, I'd say I find it very important that I reserve the *right* to be unconventional, and if my neighbor's going to want to infringe on that for no better reason than he finds my tastes goes against his...there's gonna be a litte friction.
I can see why many folks here might be up in arms about trailer-owners-gone-rampant. It's a town that was built only shortly after the Colonial days...as in verry narrow streets. Understandably...people would get pissed if 1-lane streets are all of a sudden clogged with dozens and dozens of super-wide busses. I actually think the residents that cling to the outdated ordinances are doing themselves a disservice, because really...there's not much difference between a dozen 30'x8' behemoths clogging your street and devaluing your neighborhoods vs. a dozen 32'x8.5" behemoths doing the same. The former is perfectly acceptable by county ordinances--parked on the street for days on end, whereas the 2nd isn't. It's silliness.
I have the means to "play nice" with my neighbors. I have a carport in back that would house a nice class-c rig if I want, so long as I consider it a "commercial vehicle."