It could only happen in Howcom County

The owner of a storage facility that has spent its existence on the wrong side of county land use rules is applying to get it over that fence. Dick Craddock has applied for a conditional use permit to allow his tenants the legal right to use their units to store personal effects, which county land use staff and a neighbor say has been going on since the facility was built on Churchill Street.

Craddock built the first of two buildings at the end of 1998, and added another in 2000, The building permits for the first buildings was for commercial storage/parking and the second was for a parking garage. Storage of vehicles, boats and RVs was an allowable use of the property under the 1990 Point Roberts subarea plan. Other storage facilities were not.

Complaints started coming into the county land use office in 1999 that the facility was being used as a mini-storage, which was not an allowed use in that zone. Without meeting certain other requirements dealing with signage and landscaping, Craddock was also not issued a certificate of occupancy by the county.

In 1999 Craddock was issued his first infraction for prohibited use, which he contested, and lost. He was fined $250. Another complaint came in 2000, which was resolved when Craddock provided land use division Roland Middleton, now special projects coordinator, with a copy of his lease agreement, which stipulates the units are not to be used for personal storage. In 2001, Craddock contested and lost on another infraction, paying a second $250 fine.

Following another complaint in 2002 county compliance officer Jim Thompson found a garage sale going on at the site and plenty of evidence the business was being used as a mini-storage. “This third violation was a knowing violation,” he wrote in his report. “There is no apparent sign of a change in the use of the property, leading me to believe that this will continue if left unchecked.” He recommended evaluating the case for a criminal citation.

County code enforcement officer Suzanne Bosman is now handling the case. “We had actually filed for criminal prosecution when he called and we placed it on hold pending his getting occupancy permits and using them for their intended use,” she said, which was to store vehicles, boats and RVs, now a legal non-conforming use under the 2001 Point Roberts subarea plan.

The county issued a certificate of occupancy October 27, 2004 for the buildings following a landscape plan and signage changes. Now that the buildings were legal as a non-conforming use, Craddock could legally apply to change that use through a conditional use permit, and he did less than a month later. The conditional use permit is for a personal storage facility. “This case may just resolve itself if the hearing examiner approves this,” Bosman said.

Craddock insists the buildings have never been illegally used. He also maintains it has never been and never will be a mini-storage. “This is totally different. Mini-storage is a high traffic thing,” he said, adding he had one neighbor counting vehicles going in and out of the facility and there were only 28 in the month of May. He says he is applying to have the use changed from a garage to personal storage because he doesn’t want automotive work going on at the facility. “I just want the cars out,” he said. Asked why he didn’t simply not rent space for automobile storage he explained, “if you start excluding people you’re looking at lawsuits.”

Land use specialist Marilyn Bentley will review the permit and submit a staff report to the hearing examiner’s office. The permit review period is 120 days, so the case has to be before the hearing examiner before March 15. “The criteria is if it’s not more impactful than the previous use more traffic, more utilities, more noise – then chances are it will get approved,” she said.

Neighbor Dean Imbeau has a long list of reasons why the facility would impact him less if it was used the way it was legally permitted – to store vehicles.

“There would be no semi-trailers blocking my property, no garage sales, less garbage, less traffic.” He said. “This street is not appropriate for a storage facility. It’s a short street, a dead end street. My neighbor and I are up at all hours of the night with people coming and going.”