County commissioners approve nursery, rezone

Washington County Commissioners approved a trio of zoning decisions, including a local nursery’s new location.

 Rustic Ranch was awarded a special use permit to set up its tree and plant business on a small parcel between Highway 95 and Quail Lane just north of Weiser.

 Owners Bo and Gayla Stearns spent weeks excavating and cleaning up the site to resolve flooding concerns raised by a neighbor with a storage unit business. 

 The 2-acre lot lies at the edge of the Monroe Creek floodplain, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Regulations require temporary structures like the ones used by Rustic Ranch to be anchored if located in a floodplain. 

 Otherwise, Planning and Zoning Administrator Bonnie Brent-Dowell said, “they just become projectiles in a flood.”

 County commissioners approved the special use provided Rustic Ranch continues to comply with federal rules.

 The county also rezoned 5 acres in the Chicken Hill area for additional development. The change will allow longtime Weiser residents Luis and Maria Negrete to begin the process of obtaining a permit for their son to build next to them on the hillside above the Galloway Canal. Commissioners noted a second home will not be allowed to connect to city water, requiring a well. 

 Landowner Rod Panike also obtained approval for rezoning less than 2 acres of his 60-acre farm behind the Monroe Creek Campground north of Weiser. 

 The parcel, while zoned as farm ground, is currently a gravel equipment yard and large storage shed. Panike noted that status as he downplayed the loss of agricultural land – a top concern statewide. 

 Irrigation water is also limited in the area. Panike currently rents rights from neighbors just to water the rest of the farm.

 The only concern for commissioners was guaranteeing road access. There appeared some confusion over whether Pearl Lane – the only route to the property – was a county or private roadway.

 “We don’t want another Gentry Lane,” Commissioner Gordon Wilkerson said, referencing the bitter recent access fight just a few miles north.

 Washington County Planning and Zoning Administrator Bonnie Brent-Dowell assured commissioners road use would be settled during the subdivision process should Panike move to build on the property.