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Commission recommends zoning change
Published 9/3/2010 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
Planning Commission members are recommending that Finney County officials change zoning regulations to allow some semitrailer parking in residential areas in an effort to reach a compromise between local truckers and their neighbors.
The board, which oversees zoning matters in Garden City and the county, agreed during a special meeting Thursday that truckers should have the opportunity to park their trucks or trailers at their residences by means of conditional use permits.
Planning Commission Chairman Bill King said Thursday he feels the issue of truck parking — and the ensuing noise and waste from truck maintenance, and devaluation of property that residents have complained about — is part of a larger problem of trash and abandoned trailers and vehicles in many neighborhoods around the county.
The problem has been perpetuated over the past decade and a half due to an ineffective complaint-driven enforcement policy and lack of action on the part of county officials, King said.
County-wide zoning regulations that first went into effect in 1995 do not currently allow parking of semitrailers or other two-ton or heavier vehicles in residentially-zoned areas, but local truckers regularly park their semitrailers at the T-Bone Stakes and Golf Acres subdivisions just east of Garden City, two neighborhoods where residents recently have complained.
"I was out there the other night, and there was a violation on darn near every property. Some are doing a fine job, but then you've got a trailer house behind it that isn't, unoccupied trailer homes, and trash this high," King said as he raised his hand just above his head. "Next door is five or six other trailer houses with piles of trash, piles of trash, piles of trash. And I'm thinking, 'I've been here before. No, I haven't been here before, but this place is turning into Burnside Drive.'"
Planning Commission member Jim Howard agreed with King and also had some tough words for county officials, too.
"The county has been lax on taking care of its duty with so many complaints brought in," Howard said. "This was put into place in 1995, and even with two five-year grace periods, this is totally unacceptable."
The Planning Commission could not come to a consensus about the topic at an earlier August board meeting and held Thursday's lengthy meeting to continue a decades-old dialogue that recently was renewed after several dozen local truckers and their families who live in Golf Acres and T-Bone Stakes attended a March town hall meeting of the Finney County Commission.
Several truckers told county commissioners at the time that they purchased their properties with the understanding they could park their trucks at their homes, have been doing so for several years, and were unaware they were in violation of zoning regulations until they received District Court summons. They also felt like a lack of sufficient semitrailer parking in the county left them with no choice but to park their trucks at home and wanted to continue doing so to keep valuable cargo safe.
Planning Commission member Marc Gigot said prior to his board's decision that not allowing at least some truck parking in residential areas would ruin too many livelihoods. "I drive a truck. I own a truck, and everyone's got to make an honest living," Gigot said.
In their unanimous recommendation to county commissioners, the planning board members said they'd like to see truck owners apply for conditional use permits if they'd like to park their vehicles at their homes. The permits are granted at the discretion of the Finney County Board of Zoning Appeals.
Property owners of residential lots less than two acres would be allowed to park a truck or trailer on an asphalt or gravel driveway on their property but conduct no maintenance work on their vehicles.
Residential property owners with lots larger than two acres but smaller than 40 acres would be allowed to do the same for a maximum of four trucks or trailers and complete some minor truck maintenance during daylight hours, as well, the planning commission decided.
Residential property within county limits that is greater than 40 acres is typically zoned as agricultural districts, according to Planning and Community Development Director Kaleb Kentner.
Semitrailers can be parked in those and industrial or commercially-zoned districts.
Finney County Commissioner Roman Halbur, who along with fellow commissioner Dave Jones were present Thursday, conceded that nuisance violations had gone on too long without proper attention or enforcement, but that cleanup costs always have been a concern of county officials.
Halbur said alternative efforts to clean up trailer parks and other neighborhoods in the county, such as the Neighborhood Improvement Project, spearheaded by government and school district officials, have been effective alternatives to expending county funds for cleanup.
"(The nuisance violations) are more than an eyesore — they're a hazard to the people who live there," Halbur said. "This is our community, and I want it to look better when I leave here than when I came, and I've been here for 40-some years."
Planning Commission member Ken Rishel said he believes taxpayers would be agreeable to spending funds if they were assured the money would help clean up neighborhoods county-wide.
The Planning Commission as a whole agreed Thursday to aggressively tackle other nuisance violations like the concerns brought forth by residents about semitrailer parking as soon as possible.
Kentner, the planning and community development director, said Thursday the county commission could consider the planning commission's recommendations as soon as mid-September, and that if it adopts them, he expects a large number of truckers to apply for conditional use permits.
Kentner also said that some truckers or property owners may not be able to comply with any new rules, leading to "some unhappy people."
King said before adjourning Thursday's meeting that his board's recommendations were "far from perfect" but "a step in the right direction."
"We've been sitting on our butts too long," he said.
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