The Montesano City Council has reached yet another standstill in its efforts to revise rules for RVs within city code.

For several months, the council has aimed to allow for extended stays in Montesano, specifically an increase from 30 days per year to 180 days per year.

On Jan. 24, the council had voted on a motion to approve an ordinance that would have included the extended duration. While the motion received a 3-2 vote, the ordinance required at least 4 affirmative votes (a majority of council) to pass. During that meeting, Councilman Tyler Trimble was absent. Councilman Anthony Chung, whose family’s RV park business would see direct impacts from any changes, has recused himself from voting on the issue.

At a sparsely attended Feb. 14 council meeting, the council was presented with three possible ordinances, each of which would impact zoning.

The council was advised by City Attorney Chris Coker that, following correspondence with the city’s hearing examiner and public works director Rocky Howard, it would be prudent to allow for a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) environmental checklist before approving any of the ordinances.

“I could make an argument that we wouldn’t need a SEPA checklist for simply changing the number of days available, but like anything else if a higher power decides it may have an adverse environmental impact then we could be sort of kicked back,” Coker cautioned. “We’ve got a pretty good opinion from a pretty good source that it’s their opinion that an environmental checklist would need to be conducted before any of these changes are made… it’s probably not worth arguing a little bit because if I’m wrong it would get kicked back.”

Councilman Dan Wood, who has been an outspoken supporter of extending the stays for RVs, noted his frustration that the council was asked to not vote on any of the proposed ordinances.

“Given that we’ve discussed this for six months and we voted at our last meeting 3-2 to adopt this, why are we just hearing about this tonight and not three weeks ago and not the five months prior to that,” Wood said.

Coker said he hadn’t believed the ordinances or ordinance changes required a SEPA checklist, but with it now requested, the city should comply.

“If we have information that the hearing examiner wants certain things, then I’m inclined to give them what they want,” Coker said.

Wood was unswayed in his opposition and his frustrations went unabated.

“I’m just trying to figure out how the hearing examiner gets involved in the council policy decision six months into that discussion,” Wood said. “It seems like we have surprise after surprise after surprise on this subject matter. I have to wonder what’s next.”

Wood moved to approve an ordinance amendment that would extend stays to 180 days for RVs but leave stays at 30 days for tents. Councilman Chris Hutchings seconded the motion.

For some council members, including Wood and Hutchings, it is imperative to make the change as soon as possible. The idea behind Wood’s motion was to change what could be changed, and to seek a SEPA checklist if the issue came back to council. He also noted that he supports a more comprehensive ordinance addressing both RVs and campgrounds.

And Hutchings said it was a matter of moving the issue forward.

“I don’t feel that it’s too much of an issue to change… I’d rather see this pass and see the change made,” Hutchings said. “I don’t think this hurts anything else we would do, and I would like to see this pass.”

Councilwoman Nikki Hutchinson-King was opposed to the motion saying it was “just a band-aid” and that she’d rather see the entire issue addressed.

Councilman Tyler Trimble also urged his fellow council members to remain patient while the city followed the process necessary to make the changes, including the recently announced requirement for a SEPA environmental checklist.

“If we could just wait another two weeks…” Trimble said. “We’re not going anywhere and we’re not doing anything different, we’re just waiting for the SEPA checklist.”

Councilman Ian Cope also urged the council to follow process.

“I do share Councilman Wood’s frustrations that this keeps getting pushed off. We’ve been talking about it longer than six months, and it would be nice to finally get some resolution on it,” Cope said. “But if it’s something we’re going to act on tonight and then be told in two weeks or three weeks we have to do it again — let’s make sure we have all the Is dotted and all the Ts crossed before we actually act on it.”

The motion was tied with Wood, Hutchings and Councilman Dave Skaramuca voting to amend the city’s ordinance, and Hutchinson-King, Trimble and Cope voting against the amendment.

Mayor Vini Samuel cast the tie-breaking vote in opposition to the amendment.

“If the option is number 1, to do that without a SEPA checklist, I think is very bad practice, and if the option is 2 and 3, then that’s the same version of what failed (at the last meeting),” Samuel had said before the vote.

The SEPA checklist process requires publication and a 14-day comment period.

Coker, Samuel and Wood all agreed that the issue did not specifically relate to an ongoing dispute with Monte RV Park at Monte Square near downtown.

The city is arguing that Monte RV Park is in violation of its conditional use zoning variance by having too many spaces for RVs. The RV park contends that the variance had been amended appropriately by the city to allow for the additional spaces, but the city states it has no records of such amendments. While the city and the park had been in conversations in attempts to resolve the dispute, Samuel noted that those conversations recently have broken down with no response from the RV Park despite the city’s recent attempts to make contact.

In the past, the city had notified the park that some customers may be in violation of the 30-day stay limit and the park then reminded customers of the city’s rules. But Coker pointed out that the city had not taken action against those customers, and the revision of the ordinance was not aimed to ameliorate that issue.

Wood agreed, stating that confusing issues with Monte RV Park and the council’s proposed ordinance changes is akin to “mixing the administrative issue of how many spaces should be down there with the policy issue of how long they can stay in a space, regardless of how many are there.”

“These are distinct issues, and they have been distinct from the beginning,” Wood said.