During the regular County Commission meeting last week, Commissioners held a Public Hearing of Appeal of the decision made by the Planning Commission to deny issuing a Temporary Use Permit to Kent Champneys for the General Rock, Gem, and Mineral Shop. Champneys had applied for the TUP to use a recreational vehicle as a temporary quarter for a watchman to live in while the property is being cleaned up and to discourage theft and vandalism.
According to correspondence from the Building Department from Marie Henson, building official, before the RV could be used at the property it would have to be inspected and the connections approved to electric power, water, and septic. There were no records in the building department for any prior septic system construction for that property.
Lorali LeBaron is the Code Compliance Officer for the Planning Department who told commissioners that in her investigation of the property she had “unintentionally stumbled on additional violations.” The “watchman” was working on cars on the property, which constitutes an illegal auto repair shop, and if the activity continued it would need to meet all the requirements of the commercial property. Additionally, LeBaron said, the electricity on the property would need to be brought up to code. She also said that there had not been substantial progress on the cleanup that commissioners had directed Champneys to complete before the meeting.
In her report, LeBaron also stated that multiple people including teenagers were living on the property in individual RVs and a truck camper that was sitting on the ground. A shed had been set up for use as a kitchen/dining facility and power cords and water lines were running from the shed to various RV units. “The proposed TUP is to allow a “watchman” to clean up the site. The difficulty is that the “watchman” and other RV tenants seem to have accumulated more junk rather than cleaning the site,” said the report.
Champneys argued with commissioners saying the pictures taken by LeBaron can be deceiving. “Dad had a mining operation, and this is 50 years of collecting. I’m asking you to look at it a different way. We see value in these things. It takes time to clean and go through all this to see if we are going to use it or salvage it,” he said.
Watchman, Josh Overton said it had been difficult to work on cleaning things with the triple-digit heat and amount of piles of things to sort and go through. “I’m one person,” he said.
Commissioner Justin Heath asked about other people living on the premises in spite of commissioners directing Champneys to meet code before allowing tenants.
“No disrespect,” said Champneys, “but Jesus wouldn’t turn them away. I would rather go to my grave knowing I did my best for people.”
Commissioner Pete Olsen said the lack of a septic system is unacceptable and he is concerned about the building behind the rock shop being used for washing clothes. “This in particular, on public health and safety, allowing multiple people to be on the property, you are just violating down the line and you’ve taken half-measures to get yourself in compliance, but you’re not there. You have to have safe drinking water and septic before we can even consider a Temporary Use Permit.”
Commissioners discussed at length the issue of bringing the septic up to code. County Manager Jim Barbee clarified that the issue of the septic was just one issue and that electricity would need to be brought to code, all the inspections would have to be made, and all functions on the property would have to be in compliance before the TUP could be issued.
Commissioners gave Champneys a two-month extension and directed him to meet those requirements as well as make sure all the people, except the watchman, living on the property be removed and gave him two months to complete that. At the November 17 meeting, they will revisit the issue and consider the TUP at that time.
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