HomeMy WebLinkAboutComplete BCC Staff Report 103 CUP 23 Haystack Outdoor Vehicle
103 CUP 24
BCC
LINCOLN COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS STAFF REPORT
Conditional Use Permit Application HEARING TIME AND DATE: 10:00 a.m., May 8, 2024 LOCATION: Lincoln County Courthouse, Commissioner Boardroom 3rd Floor, 925 Sage Ave., Kemmerer, Wyoming & Via Video Conference Afton Branch Office Building Conference Room, 421 Jefferson St., Afton, Wyoming
FILE # 103 CUP 24
APPLICANTS: Jason & Tracy Wolfley Family Trust
PROJECT NAME: Haystack Vehicle Storage COMMUNITY PLAN AREA: Thayne ZONING: Mixed REPRESENTATIVE: Surveyor Scherbel, Ltd. PLANNER: Emmett Mavy
PARCEL ID: 3418-073-00-122
______________________________________________________________________________
PROPOSAL: Conditional Use Permit Application to create outdoor vehicle storage at Haystack
Mountain RV and Storage in Thayne, Wyoming on 5.38+/- acres in the Mixed Zone. The lot is
classified as commercial.
LOCATION: Located 1 mile north of the Town of Thayne, Wyoming in T34N, R118W, Section 7.
ATTACHMENTS: 1. Vicinity Map 2. Site Plan 3. Public Comments
4. Applicant Letter
PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION:
The Planning and Zoning Commission did not make a recommendation. PLANNING STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Planning staff recommends that the Board of County Commissioners APPROVE File #103 CUP 24, a Conditional Use Permit, with:
• Findings of Approval A. through D.
• Conditions of Approval 1. through 3.
103 CUP 24
BCC
FINDINGS OF APPROVAL:
A. The proposed use, with conditions, is consistent with the goals and objectives of the
Lincoln County Comprehensive Plan. B. The proposed use is consistent with the provisions of the Lincoln County Land Use Regulations, specifically: Chapter 3, Section 3.1 Conditional Use Permit Procedures. C. The proposal is consistent with the provisions of Wyoming Statute 18-5-203 providing for
Board of County Commissioners authority for zoning regulation of buildings and uses of
land. D. The proposed use, with conditions, will not substantially impair the appropriate use of neighboring property; and will serve the public need, convenience and welfare.
CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL:
1. The developer/owner shall comply with all of the County, State and Federal laws and
regulations. 2. Compliance with agency requirements: The developer/owner shall obtain any and all County, State, and Federal permits, licenses, and other approvals for the construction and/or operation of the project. This may include: Local Fire District, Wyoming Department of Fire
Prevention and Electrical Safety (State Fire Marshal), Wyoming State Engineer’s Office
(SEO), Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT), Wyoming Game and Fish, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and/or Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 3. The developer/owner shall build a six foot opaque fence around the perimeter of the project
where it borders external landowners, which will provide a visual buffer for the perimeter of
the project. AGENCY CORRESPONDENCE: No correspondence was received.
PUBLIC CORRESPONDENCE: There are three letters critical of the project (see attached).
£¤89
Star Valley Ranch
Thayne
21
18
08
04
20
07
06
17
09
19
16
05
2322
11
15
03
14
10
02
24
12
01
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34N 119W 34N 118W ³±117Starbuck Drive
Stone Creek Lane
TITENSOR, SAMUEL
R & SHAWNAR TRUSTEES
WOLFLEY, JASON
E & TRACYH TRUSTEES
TITENSOR,
SCOTT A &
CAROLYN
TITENSOR,
SCOTT A &CAROLYN
RAKER, JOSHUAA & JENNIFER
SMITH, ROGERK & LEORA L
STEMBRIDGE,
ADAM &JENNIFER
JULSON, COLEE & JANESSA C
MOORE,
JEREMIE M
SMITH, ROGER
K & LEORA L
WOLFLEY, JAYCE& KAYLA BARBER
WOLFLEY, JASONE & TRACY
H TRUSTEES
WOLFLEY, JASON
E & TRACY
H TRUSTEES
WHITE, GORDON
C & DONNAS TRUSTEES
MOUNTAIN
MEADOW, LLC
TITENSOR,SCOTT A &
CAROLYN
STAR VALLEY
SPRINGS, LLC
ROBINSON, JILL W
STAR VALLEY
SPRINGS, LLC
COSMA, DINO
& NOELLE Maxar, Microsoft
Conditional Use Permit Application
Roads
Road_Type
US Highways
WY Highways
Projects
Public Noticing
Township & Range
Sections
Municipalities
File No 103 CUP 24
Haystack Storage Vehicle
Parking
Jason and Tracy Wolfley,
Trustees
Prepared using available data by Katie Gipson on 9 Feb. 2024. Map is for informational purposes only and in no way represents an official survey of land.
April 17th, 2024
Office of Planning and Development
Lincoln County, Wyoming
File No: 103-CUP-24
Project Name: Haystack Storage Vehicle Parking – Conditional Use Permit
Before I begin with my objections to this project there is an administrative issue, an anomaly so to
speak that I would like to have addressed.
On April 13th, 2024 we received a letter from the Lincoln County Planning and Development
Department in regards to the conditional Use Permit File No: 103-CUP-24 which was metered and
stamped using a Quadient postage meter and the envelope is dated March 28th, 2024 which is 17
days from the time it was metered flrst class in Afton, WY., until it arrived in Thayne on the 13th, 6
days past the deadline to be able to submit an objection letter for this project.
Property owners Sam and Shawna Titensor also received their letter on the 13th and when they
checked with Roger Smith, he too received his letter the same day. I'm not a conspiracy theorist
type person but it strikes me as very odd and almost statistically improbable that 3 letters all
pertaining to the same time-sensitive matter, all originating from the same source, could all come
up lost in the mail for 17 days and then all be found and delivered on the same day. It appears from
the diagram that only 6 letters were sent out, so a 50% failure rate is not very good. I'm not accusing
any person or government entity of any wrongdoing. There is no way to know if this was an error,
oversite, or mistake of the USPS or if some delay happened from the time the letters were metered,
and the USPS took possession of them and then delivered them. And if you have any doubts as to
whether we did receive the letters in time, I have a printout of my USPS Daily Digest for Saturday,
April 13th that shows the scan of the letter, date and time made by USPS.
To rectify the situation, I am requesting that all three letters be accepted tonight and that the
project flle and the minutes be amended to refiect that there were three letters of objection lodged
against the approval of 103 CUP 24 Haystack Vehicle Storage.
As an aside, the link in the letter to peruse the project is broken and for this project, as of 4/16/2024
the File Number wasn't visible in the list. It was discoverable by clicking the PZC Agenda 4-17-2024
that was in the list
https://weblink.lcwy.org/WebLink/Browse.aspx?id=358249&dbid=0&repo=LincolnCounty and then
you had to scroll down to flnd a note that would get you to this project.
NOTE: Additional information regarding the above noted flles can be viewed at
https://weblink.lcwy.org/WebLink/Browse.aspx?id=161128&dbid=0&repo=LincolnCounty
I told Scott the other day that it is very sad that every time I look out our East or South windows an
old Joni Mitchell song pops into my head that was released in 1970. Just the chorus part.
“Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”
We don’t seem to learn any lessons.
Our Objections begin with the flnding of approval A thru D.
We read through the Lincoln County Comprehensive Plan and for almost all the statements of
intent, objectives and what have you, not everything is very well deflned. You can take one of the
flndings and see approval for the project and we can take the same flnding and see against the
project. In many cases the flndings are subjective, ambiguous, or contradictory but here are a few
we chose to highlight.
FINDINGS OF APPROVAL:
A. The proposed use, with conditions, is consistent with the goals and objectives of the
Lincoln County Comprehensive Plan.
OBJECTION 1.
Comprehensive plan > Introduction > Private Property Rights
#2. Assume the private property holder has the primary responsibility to provide quality land use
development which will not adversely affect the community or neighbors.
This project has and will continue to adversely affect us since the County seems unwilling to
enforce its own statute violations and now wants to reward that behavior by giving them a
conditional use permit that is an absolute contradiction to 18-5-204. Violation of W.S. 18-5-202(c);
continuing violation. No person shall locate, erect, construct, reconstruct, enlarge, change,
maintain or use any building or use any land in violation of a resolution or amendment adopted by
any board of county commissioners under W.W.S. 18-5-202(c). Each day’s continuation of such
violation is a separate offence.
. Haystack Storage is not permitted for any uncovered vehicle storage. There are many vehicles in
the front and back of the storage units in violation of the Zoning and Development Permit, and the
business is advertising outdoor vehicle storage on their website in violation of their permit.
#6. Are directed toward the creation of quality land use as a result of cooperation between
landowners, the community, and government.
This is not quality land use, and the property has been abused environmentally, especially Lot 4
which is outside the mixed-use zone and the project but was used for the project.
. Haystack Storage has a history of coloring outside of the lines.
- It has been our experience that the owners of Haystack Storage do not cooperate with their
neighbors.
- Our flrst introduction was the owner barging onto our property bellowing, “somebody owes me
some money.” Not a good 1st impression but this isn’t the place to say anything more except that
Scott asked them not to return and he felt it was necessary to post no trespassing signs after the
incident.
- Next came the fence which separates our properties. The owner continually rammed his wheel
line into it knocking a long section of it over. He has yet to repair it and as a result, people who
frequent his property often bring their dogs who come onto our property. Some are quite large and
not very friendly.
- Vehicles have been stored or parked there from the beginning of his tenure. I have personally seen
people stay the night in their travel trailers or tiny homes even though it isn’t an RV Park and has no
services. It is disconcerting for us to have strange people in and out all hours of the day and night
next door with no security or privacy fence to protect us from lights, noise, animals, or people.
- When the construction phase began, they did not use common construction practices. They used
oversized very loud machinery, worked early hour mornings, late evenings, weekends, and holidays.
It was impossible to enjoy any time outside on the South or East sides of our home during this
period.
- They used a water truck during construction that took water from the Porto Canal water district.
The water right out of Porto Canal is only allowed for irrigation purposes and was miss-used for
construction purposes.
- The pit they excavated from Lot 4 got very deep. They needed the bedrock from that part of the
property to fortify the ground under where the storage sheds would go. That was a dairy for decades
and the soil was very rich but soft.
- The pit became a dumping ground of material from both onsite and offsite. They were hauling stuff
in and dumping it in the pit. Asphalt, cinderblocks, cardboard, plastics, I could go on. Some of this
debris would blow over to our property because it wasn’t properly contained. We picked up a lot of
plastic and cardboard.
- Then the burning started. When plastic and other caustic material is burned it leaches chemicals
into the soil, not to mention polluting the air. Our big concern is the chemicals in the ground. The pit
is within a ¼ mile of both our domestic well and our irrigation well. The type of chemicals I’m
referring to never go away. You can see how close our home is to the site of the pits, proposed
parking lot and storage units.
- The lights from the storage units, although better now, than seen in the picture, are still
obnoxiously bright on the northside of the units. We lived with these lights for over two years. When
we told the owner they were lighting up our property, he denied they were.
- Shipping containers that arrived were numbered and rented out. These are not in his flrst permit
and there is no mention of them in this permit. Which begs the question, “How you deflne vehicle
parking?” What isn’t allowed. There are utility trailers, trailers with tarps, tiny homes where the
Tyvek is fiapping in the wind, buses, there have been boats, trucks, cars you name it.
- A berm was built but we are not sure if that is staying. It’s not a fence. It won’t block out vehicle
lights from shining at us. He cleared the area in anticipation of approval.
- You can see the difference when there are a few vehicles and other things parked there and when
there are a lot. I cannot imagine parking 120 vehicles in this space. There are always concerns
about people storing fiammables inside their storage units. What about having row after row of gas
and diesel fllled vehicles everywhere. This property is surrounded by flelds, it isn’t in a town or
adjacent to an airport. One wrong spark and we are all in real danger. If you feel inclined to chuckle
at this remark, you should know that flreworks have been set off over there. We don’t know who is
doing it, but it happens on the 4th of July and New Years almost every year.
- This winter, the snow sliding off the RV Storage unit roof has taken out another section of the
fence. We’ve had at least 4 people who have purchased that property since the original owner sold
out and never have, we had any problems with any of them and never have we had any problems
with the fence.
- These last two pictures show you what this area is supposed to look like, what its best use is. I
included our home so you can get a good idea of just how invasive it will be to us if people are
parking in spaces 86 to 102. They will be aimed right at us; they can see in our windows, especially
at night when the lights are on. We would have never dreamt this would become our life. I designed
this home; we built it from scratch with our own two hands. We had help with the trusses, kitchen
counters and cabinets and the carpet. It is truly our dream home and is supposed to be our forever
home. The picture of the Bison is our neighbors to the north. A parking lot has no place here.
In conclusion. We don’t know what the lighting will be like, will it be paved, will there be a required
minimum stay, how will overnight stays be prevented, no one is on the premises at night to check
and will a security or privacy fence be required? The owners have shown that they will push the
boundaries and this department seems willing to not only not enforce the statutes, but you also
now want to help them skirt them. Have you changed the statue? I doubt a penny has been paid in
flnes. What a terrible precedence you are setting. These “Parking lots” will start to be included in
every storage facility request. If people learn they can violate their permits, you’ll get more violators.
Is that really what you want to see scattered around the valley?
There seems to be a lot of developing and not much planning. You are failing to protect us, our
property values, and our way of life so someone else has a place to park who knows what?
We whole-heartly object to this project.
Sincerely,
Scott and Carolyn Titensor
Elizabeth Williams <elizabeth.williams@lincolncountywy.gov>
Fwd: Jason Wolfley
1 message
Stephen Allen <stephen.allen@lincolncountywy.gov>Sat, Apr 20, 2024 at 1:33 PM
To: Elizabeth Williams <elizabeth.williams@lincolncountywy.gov>, Austin Dunlap <austin.dunlap@lincolncountywy.gov>
Fyi
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: titensor@silverstar.com
Date: April 20, 2024 at 12:06:29 PM MDT
To: stephen.allen@lincolncountywy.gov
Subject: Jason Wolfley
Mr. Allen, I attended the meeting on April 17, 2024 concerning Haystack Storage wanting to put in outdoor
storage. Jason said something that I know was not the truth concerning the fences. Scott takes pride in
having a nice yard and nice fencing. Jasons wheel line would constantly knock over Scott's fence and snow
from his storage shed would fall into Scott's fence knocking it over. Scott gave up trying to fix the fence. I
know this because I live close to these fences and have watched it happen.
Lincoln County really needs to hire an enforcer since all of this development is happening in the valley.
Also, Rodger Smith, Scott, and Sam and I did not get our letter concerning this meeting until 5 days after
the deadline to write letters. Lincoln County needs to send these letters out 3-4 weeks in advance since the
mail service is so slow. This also happened to us last year. I talked to Misty Sanderson about it and I do
realize you have no control over the mail, but 2 weeks is just not enough time anymore.
Thank you, Shawna Titensor
4/25/24, 4:34 PM LINCOLN COUNTY WYOMING Mail - Fwd: Jason Wolfley
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ik=8e4afe6fc8&view=pt&search=all&permthid=thread-f:1796883467972031294&simpl=msg-f:1796883467972031294 1/1
Elizabeth Williams <elizabeth.williams@lincolncountywy.gov>
Fwd: Opposition to file # 103-CUP-24
Stephen Allen <stephen.allen@lincolncountywy.gov>Sun, Apr 21, 2024 at 7:15 AM
To: Katie Gipson <katie.gipson@lincolncountywy.gov>, Elizabeth Williams <elizabeth.williams@lincolncountywy.gov>
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: R Smith <1alfawolf2001@gmail.com>
Date: April 20, 2024 at 10:26:15 PM MDT
To: Kent Connelly County Commissioner <kent.connelly@lincolncountywy.gov>, Jerry Hansen County
Commissioner <jerry.hansen@lincolncountywy.gov>, Teri Bowers County Commissioner
<teri.bowers@lincolncountywy.gov>, Stephen Allen County Commissioner <stephen.allen@
lincolncountywy.gov>
Subject: Opposition to file # 103-CUP-24
To Lincoln County Commissioners,
I will be unable to attend the board meeting on May 8th because, I have family coming to town. I live at 77
Lost Creek rd in Thayne two lots south of the proposed Haystack outside vehicle storage. I am apposed to the
outside storage at the Haystack storage facility. I can see storage lot from my back porch. Before the storage
facility was built I was able to see my neighbor's bison three lots north of me, which was pretty amazing. When
Haystack put in the storage units they began parking vehicles to the east of their storage buildings where they
are asking for the conditional use permit. These vehicles have been parked there for sometime. As you can
see from the attached photos it looks like a junk yard from my house. The burm and the plants that Haystack
has put in does not block any of the vehicles parked there. One of my neighbors told me that when the permit
was first issued that out side parking was not permitted. This last summer there were also three trailers
parked on thewestside of the storage units on Muddy Strings, one of them was for sale.
Sincerely,
Roger Smith
1alfawolf2001@gmail.com
77 Lost Creek rd
Thayne, WY 83127
307-226-5193
4/25/24, 1:40 PM LINCOLN COUNTY WYOMING Mail - Fwd: Opposition to file # 103-CUP-24
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ik=8e4afe6fc8&view=pt&search=all&permmsgid=msg-f:1796950302083524859&simpl=msg-f:1796950302083524859 1/2
4/25/24, 1:40 PM LINCOLN COUNTY WYOMING Mail - Fwd: Opposition to file # 103-CUP-24
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ik=8e4afe6fc8&view=pt&search=all&permmsgid=msg-f:1796950302083524859&simpl=msg-f:1796950302083524859 2/2