Building, Planning departments push for compliance

By Marcy Stamper

One person has amassed a dozen RVs on the banks of the Methow River. The others have added onto trailers in a remote development on the Chewuch River. But these property owners are all the subject of actions by Okanogan County officials to fix violations of building and zoning codes.

About 1 mile north of the town of Methow, on the west side of Highway 153, a property owner has assembled vintage trailers, small storage units and a gazebo, and a building with potted plants and landscaped walkways that the owner calls a “cottage.” Over the past year, the Okanogan County Building and Planning departments have been responding to complaints about the growing settlement, which has apparently been established without permits or a site plan.

The first complaint was made to the Building Department in November 2014. Okanogan County Building Official Dan Higbee followed up with a letter to the property owner, Kimberly Mele, saying that she had “multiple recreational vehicles permanently installed” that require a permit.

Higbee urged Mele to contact him. “Our Department is committed to customer service by helping the people of Okanogan County obtain the necessary permits and assist in meeting mandated building codes,” he wrote last November.

In December 2014, Higbee spoke with Mele, who explained that she and her family camped there “every once in a while.” Mele said she was working with Okanogan County Public Health to obtain permits for septic and water systems and that she had contacted the Planning Department for a conditional-use permit to utilize the trailers as a nightly rental.

Higbee explained that the trailers would need a permit to be a nightly rental, and that the cottage would need a permit as a residence. He sent the appropriate application and instructions.

To operate a trailer park, Mele would need a binding site plan with the Planning Department. But Okanogan County Planning Director Perry Huston said this week — a year after the initial complaint — that Mele has not contacted his office to begin that process. Huston and Higbee sent Mele a letter in September 2015, ordering her to “cease all use of the property as a recreational vehicle park or manufactured housing facility immediately.”

“You can collect trailers but not rent them out. Nothing in the code says you can’t collect Airstream trailers,” said Huston. But using the trailers as a nightly rental would involve requirements beyond the site plan, including fire sprinklers, said Higbee.

Okanogan County code restricts the number of inoperable cars on a single parcel to five. “Many people think you can’t have junk on your property, but there’s nothing in the code that prohibits that. You can’t have putrefying stuff that would create public health issues,” said Huston.

Other regulations govern the portion of a lot that can be used for a residence or that can be covered with an impervious surface, said Huston. Huston said the trailers and other structures do not appear to violate setback regulations from the river.

Higbee also spoke with Mele after sending the September 2015 letter. Mele explained that no one was living on the property and promised to apply for the building permit for the cottage. Higbee said this week that he has not received an application yet for the cottage, nor another building — a sort of homemade trailer — that is now installed.

Mele did begin the application process for a septic permit from Okanogan County Public Health, but has not applied for a public water system, which is necessary to provide water for that many structures, according to J.J. Bellinger, an environmental health specialist.

According to the Environmental Health logs, Mele’s application for a septic system is still in process. Mele has applied for a permit but it is not clear if she submitted a design, and there has been no final inspection, said Bellinger.

If Mele proceeds with plans for an RV park, she would most likely have to obtain a permit for a water system through the Washington Department of Health, which covers any system with more than nine connections, said Bellinger.

Huston said he plans to send another letter this week to Mele. Code-enforcement complaints are criminal investigations and involve the county prosecutor if a person refuses to come into compliance, he said.

“It’s such a weird circumstance, it’s hard to find parallels,” said Huston.

Secluded and not permitted

The Planning Department is also working with several property owners in a development on Cottonwood Lane (sometimes spelled Cottenwood). Unlike the Mele property, Cottonwood Lane is decidedly out of the way, a small private subdivision surrounded by U.S. Forest Service land, 9 miles from Winthrop on the Chewuch River.

The area was platted in 1971 and today has about 15 lots with mowed lawns and fire rings. Most structures there are RVs, many with a cover to protect them from snow. There are several portable toilets and even an outhouse or two.

The Building Department received an anonymous complaint about several parcels in the Cottonwood development in January 2015. The letter writer said he or she and some neighbors in the Cottonwood development had applied for permits to construct additions or buildings but had been turned down, while others had simply built or hooked up electric or septic systems without a permit.

The Planning Department has contacted the Cottonwood property owners to try to bring them into compliance, and several cases have come before the county’s hearing examiner.

In one case, the property owner had permission to erect an RV cover, but later added four walls, essentially creating a cabin, according to Okanogan County Planner Anna Randall. Although the structure has been there for almost a decade, it violated a prohibition against any structure for human habitation in the 100-year-floodplain in the Methow Review District, said Randall.

Buildings such as garages and sheds are permissible because they are not for habitation, but they must meet specific regulations for venting and elevation to permit floodwaters and woody debris to pass through, said Randall.

Other property owners in the area had apparently installed drainfields without permits, according to Dave Hilton, environmental health director for Okanogan County. At least three of them have now applied for a variance to install a holding tank for solid waste, a temporary system that has to be pumped out regularly. With a holding tank, the properties cannot be used more than 60 days per year. The lots are too small to accommodate both a well and a discharging septic system, said Hilton.

Another resident there has applied for a variance because she had built a shed and a deck cover too close to the neighboring property lines.

Some of the Cottonwood Lane issues are still pending and others have been resolved with restrictions imposed by the hearing examiner.

Okanogan County’s enforcement system is complaint-driven, said Randall. Building and Planning staff do not go out looking for violations, she said.

But the person who complained about unpermitted actions on Cottonwood Lane charged that the approach encourages people to ignore the law.

“It is a big joke and many of the residents are saying they will build what they want, if caught they will just say I am so sorry I did not know I needed a permit for that and I will get one immediately and they suffer no consequences,” he or she wrote.