Foothills subdivision eyes change to RV restrictions
Current zoning requires costly permits for temporary guests
A subdivision in the Foothills is petitioning Yuma County to address zoning restrictions that don’t allow homeowners to let family or friends stay in a recreational vehicle parked on their property, without obtaining costly permits.
The Foothills Phase 3 subdivision was built in the 1960s near Foothills Boulevard and 40th Street, before zoning ordinances were adopted by the county. It was later zoned as a “manufactured home subdivision,” which excludes allowing an RV as a temporary or longer-term residence on a lot that already has a home.
Permits can be obtained to allow it, but they cost $355 for a temporary guest, and residents can only apply every other year. A longer-term one is available for a caregiver for a medical situation, but those run $660.
But in adjacent neighborhoods zoned for “recreational vehicle subdivisions,” properties that cover at least 6,000 square feet can have two RVs or a house and RV hooked up and used on the same property, and many take advantage of that option.
“It’s extremely maddening when you drive by these little teeny-weeny lots, that are right across the line, and there are three of them on there, and you can’t have one, when your lot is huge,” said Dee Hilbert, who collected 61 signatures from her neighbors asking the county for relief.
Martin Bussard, 93, lives two houses down from Hilbert. When he suffered a stroke about two years ago his daughter Mary Mithani came from her Texas home to provide the continuous care he needs, both in Yuma and when he returns to his native Colorado for the summer.
She said she wants to be able to return to her own life and family, and her brother would be able to stay with their father if he could park his RV there, but because he’s a smoker he can’t live inside Bussard’s house.
Bud Sargent led an effort to have the zoning changed in that area, and collected 49 signatures. This brought the case to a county Planning Commission meeting in February 2010, where the change was not recommended for approval.
County staff at the time also suggested residents could pursue a planned development designation for the area, which would allow more flexible rules. According to county records a neighborhood meeting addressing the topic was held about the same time, but Sargent said he doesn’t recall any follow-up by the county on that idea.
“If we could just get that implemented, I think we’d all be happy,” he said.
County Planning and Zoning Director Maggie Castro said along with the zoning category, other issues influenced the staff decision in 2010 to recommend against the zoning change, including the subdivision’s unpaved streets and dependence on septic tanks, and CC&Rs that prohibited RVs when there was already a site-built or manufactured home on the lot.
Planned development zoning is usually given to residential neighborhoods before they’re built and sold, but she said it can be adapted to a 50-year-old subdivision as well. “Anything is possible. Rezoning them to a planned development, they can specify what would be allowed on the lots, whether it be a manufactured home and an RV, or simply one RV on each lot,” she said.
The Foothills Phase 3 leaders have asked that a public hearing for their request be held in November, when most winter residents will have come back to their homes. Jessica Berube said they are working with county planning staff, and are hopeful the situation left unresolved eight years ago will be addressed this time.
“We pay taxes in this community and all we’re asking for is to be able to have an RV, or two, on a certain size lot, and that’s it,” she said.