By Pepper Fisher

CLALLAM COUNTY – It looks like the draft RV ordinance that County Commissioners have worked so hard to advance is going to take a few steps back from its original lofty goals.

When it comes to drafting the rules around allowing RVs, yurts or camping on private property, the biggest issues to tackle have been provisions of potable water and the handling of wastewater and gray water on rural properties.

Commissioners appeared to be making progress after running their proposals through the Planning Commission and holding several meetings of their own, including a public hearing.

But Commissioner Mark Ozias says the County Environmental Health Department only recently weighed in on several issues, and that’s fueled the Board’s decision to reduce the scope.

“At some point relatively late in the process, the Commissioners learned that the Environmental Health Department had some concerns about the ordinance as it had been drafted, and the Department of Community Development decided that it was just going to be impossible to advance the ordinance. The Commissioners did not agree, so we had a discussion today and decided that what we would like to do is really focus on; What are the problems that we’re trying to solve?

Issue number one is the problem of illegal RV parks on residential properties and, number two, clarifying what the regulations will be for people who want to live in a park model RV.

Ozias says Commissioners acknowledge that there are any number of people who live RVs because their only alternative would be to live on the streets. They also understand that people live in RVs in rural areas while building their homes, or simply because they choose to.

“Really, our concern there has to do with; How is your waste being disposed of? We felt that it made much more sense to focus on; What are the implications of that? Namely; Is there an environmental concern being raised? And if not, then, you know, if we can show that there isn’t, then why wouldn’t we give people that flexibility?”

Commissioners will send the draft ordinance back to the Planning Commission and the Environmental Health Department with the recommendation that they take another look with the discussed narrower scope in mind and revisit the draft in the near future.