by Richard Ulhorn
After a contentious Manson Community Council meeting, the council lost its chairman. After a perceived threat by the County officials in attendance towards her Blueberry Hills business, Kari Sorenson tendered her resignation from the council. Her letter follows:
Please accept my resignation from Manson Community Council effectively. It’s been a pleasure to serve with each of you on the council in representation of the community of Manson, which has my whole heart. I plan on continuing to be involved, however, as a community member where I can represent my own thoughts and beliefs more publically in our community without being outright threatened in order to be silenced.
In regard to our Community Council meeting last evening, the level of depraved disrespect and devaluation that the County showed toward their Community Councils last night (Malaga and Peshashtin’s as well) sickened me, as well as their continued and vehemently defended lack of transparency toward the communities at large and to silence the voices of our small rural communities at all costs. Add to that having my own business’s conditional use permit literally threatened twice in that meeting to silence me in that meeting was the very last straw. The money grab at the County level versus the needs and desires of folks that actually live daily here in our communities is completely at odds. We all know how this will end if we don’t stand up and SAY SOMETHING as a community. We have a lot to lose.
I appreciate the service that the Manson Community Council has provided to the community over all these years and I will continue to support you in any way that I can. It’s a thankless job and I am here to thank each of you. It’s a tough job and thank you for being willing to do it.
Sincerely,
Kari Sorensen
While the agenda had a number of issues to tackle, the most contentious was “who made the decision to remove the Councils from the Agency list and how do we get back on it.”
My specific question to Deanna Walter – Chelan County Community Development Director, was why the council wasn’t informed of an application to open a distillery in a Manson residential area that residents were concerned about?
Sorenson asked why the council didn’t receive notices of projects that impact the Manson community. Walter replied, “You receive some of them prior to approval. What kind of applications are you looking for?”
Over the years, the Manson Community Council has struggled with getting information from the County on issues that impact the community. The Council would like the opportunity to view and advise on any application that potentially impacts the community.
Unfortunately, advise is the operative word here. The Manson Community Council is an elected advisory council and Walter made it very clear that Manson, Malaga and Peshastin, as advisory councils, are not able to impose conditions of approval on the applications the County receives. “Any comments that come in (on an application) are not agency comments,” said Walter. “They are public comments. I understand you are frustrated.”
Buell Hawkins, a past county commissioner, remarked that Manson’s council was advisory only. Councilmember John Frolker replied, “So we have no authority.”
According to Walter, the County advertises and posts each application in the newspaper of record (Wenatchee Daily World) and at the site of each application. Those who live within 200 feet of the proposed development are notified by mail.
Applications are approved based on meeting the relevant county codes. “You either meet the code or you don’t,” said Walter. It doesn’t matter if you oppose an application as an individual or agency. If it meets the code, it is automatically approved.
Hawkins turned the conversation to the topic of ag-tourism which he was involved with in the initial efforts to help commercial agriculture develop value added ag-tourism businesses.
Twenty years ago, Blueberry Hills came to life in the commercial agriculture area that was mostly planted in apple orchards. The business grew into a major tourist attraction and commercial agricultural business with acres of blueberries.
Along with Blueberry Hill’s success (so successful, they are having difficulty keeping up with the restaurant side of the endeavor) wineries began to emerge in the Manson area as orchardists gave up on the apple business and sold out to winery owners for vineyard development or for residential development.
“Beware of what you ask for,” stated Hawkins. He mentioned the huge increase of business in the valley that is disrupting the once quiet community. “You are seeing more businesses in the area that you don’t desire,” said Hawkins mentioning the NIMBI complex of “you have your piece of the pie” but not in my backyard.
The Manson population has increased to 4,600 as of 2020 and is currently estimated at 4,700 to 4,800 residents. Chelan’s 2020 (inside the city limits) population has reached 4,800 residential units and is estimated to be 4,950 now. (source – City Councilman John Olson).
Walter added that the commissioners can only put issues on the docket that they receive. The meeting segued into the issue of Manson’s STR (Short Term Rental) businesses.
Short Term Rental discussion:
According to Walter, STRs in a commercial agricultural zone need a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to operate legally. The questions asked by the Council were:
- How can the public obtain a current list of licensed STRs?
- What is the correct procedure for STR complaints?
- Have any STRs actually lost their licenses due to the three-complaint rule?
- Have any fines been paid by homeowners regarding valid complaints? How can we obtain that information?
- Now that the STR code is in place and licenses are being purchased annually, are the Code Enforcement officers’s hours being expanded beyond the Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule?
- What recommendations from the STR Task Force are moving forward, but not implemented yet?
- Are STRs allowed to be within the 100 foot setback for farms and orchards?
Commissioner Tiffany Gearing said the County is doing a map. “We are working on it.” This map will have the STR number and Occupancy number, the owners name and address.
If a complaint is made about activities at an STR, the owner of that STR has, by code, 60 minutes to mitigate the problem. “If they don’t, I need the contact number,” said Walter. “They have to remedy the problem within one hour and fix the problem. If they don’t it goes to Code Enforcement.”
Unfortunately, the three Code Enforcement officers work a regular five day shift. “We employ retired law enforcement as code enforcers,” said Sheriff Mike Morrison. “They don’t want to work weekends.” However, regular deputies will respond to a complaint on weekends and then turn the complaint over to Code Enforcement on Monday.
Morrison added that taking photographs and videos help code enforcers with their followups.
The County has the ability to pull a STR permit off the books and cancel their permit, but the STR issue throughout the county is out of control.
The process for fines is in place and the County is looking at hiring a monitoring company to look at STRs and AirBnbs. Hawkins remarked that if the STR or rental isn’t paying the Hotel lodging tax, they are probably not reporting their income on the federal taxes. “Once the tax collectors enter your life takes on a much different light,” said Hawkins.
In other business:
Manson Parks has initiated WiFi at their building and installed a Smart Television so the Manson Community Council can no live stream their meetings to public through ZOOM.
The County Public Works department has installed “No Parking” signs in the alley behind Manson’s main street to the dismay of many employees who used to park there. “We have received a number of angry telephone calls,” said Gearing. The decision to limit parking is to enable emergency vehicle access.
People are still parking there despite the new signage. Gearing told the council to call RiverCom to complain and a sheriff’s deputy would ticket the offenders.
Council member John Frolker gave an update on the Chelan County Cascade Public Infrastructure Fund, a task force committee he serves on.
Six of seven applications for funding were approved and included a project in Cashmere, an Entiat general sewer plan, a Wenatchee sewer line, a renovation of a 31 unit affordable housing units in Leavenworth. Chelan Valley Housing Trust’s application was not funded because it did not qualify. “I was happy to serve on this committee,” said Frolker.
Comments:
One past Manson Community Councilmember stated that nothing has changed in all the years she served. “It’s like the County doesn’t care about what people in the community think.”
Several other individuals commented negatively about the meeting while one attendee said he appreciated that County officials showed up.
With Ms. Sorenson’s resignation, a seat will open up for an appointment.
The next Manson Community Council meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 19.
All Things Lake Chelan 