Each night, there are more than 400 people sleeping in cars on Sacramento streets.

Now, a new plan is being unveiled that would give them a safe place to park, but not everyone's on board with where it could be located.

Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT) officials discussed reserving more than 100 parking spaces at the Franklin Light Rail Station off Cosumnes River Boulevard for people living in cars, vans and RVs to sleep.

"There's really not a legal place for you to park your vehicle if you're living in it," said Caity Maple, a regional transit board member.

Brian Pedro, director of the Sacramento Department of Community Response, said his department estimates around 450 families are living in their vehicles across the city.

His department and SacRT are working together on what they're calling the Safe Parking site. SacRT said the parking lot has 668 spaces and is never full. The proposal would use about 140 of these spaces to accommodate up to 80 vehicles.

"We're not looking to make this an RV park," Pedro said. "We are looking for a safe spot for them to park that's off the road."

The site does not directly back up to any homes or businesses. It would feature portable restrooms, running water, showers, and 24-hour security.

Some city leaders say it will help clean up clusters of people camping in cars.

"This makes sense to me," SacRT board member Roger Dickinson said. "I think we all observe what we see on our streets."

But other SacRT board members are worried about the impact on light rail riders.

"I have some concerns about this," board member Anna Rohrbough said. "One of our goals here is to increase ridership, and I could see this doing the opposite, having the opposite effect."

People will have to be invited into the site by outreach workers, and vehicles must have current registration.

It's Sacramento's latest idea to help support people struggling to afford permanent housing.

"This is yet another tool for us to be able to help pull some people off the street and get them into a safer space," Pedro said.

The city and SacRT will need to get approval from federal transportation officials before moving forward with the program.

Sacramento County is also planning on opening a car camping site along Watt Avenue in North Highlands later this year.