County P&Z may reconsider RV rules

Foothills neighborhood has been dealing with zoning issue

The Yuma County Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday said it would be willing to consider a more limited version of a proposal to give property owners in certain areas the right to have an occupied recreational vehicle on their properties for up to four months each year.

The text amendment presented by county planning staff that evening would have covered five residential zoning categories within the county, allowing homeowners to let visiting friends or family park an RV on their property for short periods.

Current regulations require most residents to obtain a $355 temporary use permit for a guest to stay in an RV on their property. The permit is good for one year, and property owners are only eligible to apply every other year.

This has been a longrunning issue with the residents of one neighborhood just east of Yuma, known as Foothills No. 1-4. It was one of the first areas developed within the unincorporated Foothills area, and it does not have paved streets or sewer connections.

It has Manufactured Home Subdivision zoning, and beginning in 2006, residents have periodically petitioned the county to be rezoned as a Recreational Vehicle Subdivision, which allows two occupied RVs or one house and one RV to share one lot without any need for a permit.

County Senior Planner Juan Leal Rubio said the rezoning request had been denied in the past, mostly due to the lack of paved streets and sewer connections that could handle higher-density development than is currently allowed.

The proposal to allow RVs for up to four months of the year without any permit was a compromise with what the Foothills 1-4 residents were asking for.

The extra RV would only be permitted if Enforcement of the rules would be complaint-based, as the county doesn’t have enough inspectors to monitor all the RV stays as they develop.

Foothills resident Dee Hilbert, who turned in a petition with 62 signatures earlier this year asking again for the rezoning, said during Monday’s meeting she supported the proposal.

She said it would be nice to allow residents to have people come and visit, and she doesn’t anticipate many of these would turn into longer-term stays.

“If a person is visiting, (most people) don’t want that person to stay there forever, just like you have a spare bedroom. You don’t want them to move in with you,” she said.

She was the only member of the public who spoke in favor of the change. One also spoke against it. Richard Zarr lives in a different area of the Foothills and had several issues with it, including enforcement.

“Why should we as the public have to police our own zoning? We do have to police our own CC&R’s, but why do we have to police zoning? Why do we have to complain for you to go after it? You have to be able to provide that service to us,” he said.

The commissioners agreed to look at an ordinance that would restrict the four-month rule to areas zoned for manufactured home subdivisions, which would include the residents who had brought up the issue.

All recommendations from the commission go to the county Board of Supervisors for final approval. Other cases that got positive votes included:

• A special use permit for another large solar facility in the far east county, this one for Viktoria Solar covering 2,050 acres north of Palomas Road and Avenue 61E, north of Dateland.

The special use permit would be for a 250-megawatt facility with up to 100 megawatts of battery storage, located about 5.5 miles southwest of the 210-megawatt Aqua Caliente solar facility.

Matthew Neeson, representing Utah-based Viktoria, said the project will create up to 600 construction jobs and is scheduled for completion in 2021.

Two similar-sized projects adjoining Agua Caliente, the White Wing and McFarland generating facilities, have been approved in the last couple of years, but construction hasn’t begun on either of them.

• A rezoning request for 5 acres at Avenue 1 1/2 E and County 14th Street from Rural Area-10 acre minimum to Light Industrial, for construction of an industrial building.

• A special use permit application for a 5.3 acre parcel at 10179 E. South Frontage Road for a propane dispensing operation and a mobile trailer for a caretaker’s residence, for the intent of opening an Anchor business.