After reading an excellent article on Dogtown Wire yesterday evening (make sure you check out the comments by a member of the very coach association Mayor Hays is courting) I did a little thinking and research.  I believe the word "may" could have been left off the title of the article.  I believe there is no doubt the RV Park violates the NLR zoning requirements.  However you decide.  Click here for a link to the map of the RV park and print it off for yourself.  The map is to a scale of 1 inch equals 100 ft. so you can measure the zoning distance requirements yourself.  Also click here for a link to the pages of the NLR Zoning Ordinance for RV Parks.  I have marked the problem requiremnts and they are summarized here

1. RV Parks cannot be located within 200 ft. of a residential area.  I have clouded an area on the upper right corner of the RV map which I beileve the NLR Zoning maps show zoned as R4, residential, well within 200 ft. of the park.
2. The areas not used for pads, roads and buildings must be grassed.  Much of the proposed site is gravel.  Does the budget include all that sod and ripping up of the gravel?  Of course if the City had a budget we could tell.
3. No RV can be within 10 feet of each other nor closer than 5 feet of an individual RV site line. The ordinance is very specific that awnings and slide outs are included in the width   All the RV sites measure 20 feet wide and are slammed in tight as possible right next to each other.  The only way to meet the zoning requirements would be to not permit RV'ers to use thier awnings or slide outs.  That will sure cut down the reservations.
4. The roads must be a minimum of 10 feet wide and paved with a dust free material.  Two way roads must be 20 feet wide.  The two way road on the west of the map measures the same as the one way road, 10 feet wide.  Gravel is not a dust free material, so do we have asphalt in the budget?  Oops, that we don't have a budget thing again, so who knows?
5. Must have three off street parking spaces  for each  two RV pads.  Based on 60 pads, that means there should be 90 car parking places.  Where are these paved spaces in the RV Park fence limits?
6. There must be two entrances for a park of this size. There are two, but based on 20 foot two way road widths the second entrance in not wide enough.
7. There must be a minimum 15 foot setback from the property lines and it looks lke many of these spots are slammed right up against the flood wall with no set back.
8. No resident may stay more than 3 months, which sort of puts a kink in the City's plan to have one or more RVer live there and operate the park for the eight month season.  At least that was the plan outlined  by Joe Smith in the City Council meeting.

But wait, there is more.  As a result of a recent check with the City Planning Dept, I was told they had nothing to do with the RV Park and to the best of my knowledge this has not been brought before the Planning Commission.  During a conversation with a Chamber of Commerce person where the person was informed of these issues, I was told this is a City thing.

The real outrage is here is that you and I ordinary citizens with our hard earned money could not build this type of thing or anythng that violated the zoning ordinances without  going before one or more City committees, commissions or City Council.  But let City Hall take that same hard earned money of OURS and they can use it for whatever they want and break whatever rules and ordinances they want without even go through the proper process.

Leadership is best set by example and the leadership on the RV Park has been very bad.  This is not set in stone.   As the only two alderpersons voting against the RV park funding ordinance at the last Council meeting Alderpersons Gaines or Ross can offer a motion to rescind the previous funding ordinance. Or a new motion can be introduced to require the Park go throught the proper process and meet all the same zoning requirements we would all have to meet.

Let's stop this fiasco now and do it right.  That means with a budget, business plan and site plan meeting the zoing requiremnts. A previoue post here on this site went over the deeply flawed approval by City Council for a $200,000 loan to fund this RV Park. Call your alderperson and tell them this is not right.  You can find links and phone numbers for each alderperson under the City Directory link to the right.  Make sure you ask them one question....

WHY DOES THE CITY NOT HAVE TO FOLLOW THE SAME PROCESS AND REQUIREMENTS I DO?

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