The City of Montesano continues to stumble its way forward in the aim of adopting a new municipal code to better govern RV parks.

A draft RV park municipal code was presented to the Montesano City Council during the Nov. 28 meeting. Both Mayor Vini Samuel and Councilman Dan Wood passionately discussed their positions on the code. Samuel approves of the code as written while Wood says the code is unnecessary to address the initial intent of the council.

Longer than a year ago, the city council brought forward several issues regarding RV parks. The issue Wood feels is most important is language governing how long an RV can stay at an RV park. Mayor Samuel also brought forward issues with the current RV park, Monte Square, allegedly not complying with its conditional use permit.

To Wood’s concern, city code currently states an RV can not be parked within a campground for more than 30 days. Wood feels the city should allow RVs to stay for up to 180 days to match Elma’s code. Without competing by allowing the extended stays, Wood says Montesano may be giving up revenue.

During the Nov. 28 meeting, Wood said he felt the issue of how long RVs could stay at the RV park was being forgotten for a new overall RV park code.

“We started this discussion to deal with 30 versus 180 days. The larger RV ordinance got wrapped around it, and to find out at this point that it doesn’t even apply to that RV park is quite surprising to me,” Wood said. “I’d like to fix that before we act on this at our next meeting.”

Wood said the council had agreed long ago that the city would extend the length of RV stays independent of any other action involving Monte Square. Mayor Samuel said she didn’t recall that conversation. That led to contentious disagreement between Wood and Samuel.

“Given the amount of work that has been done on this (proposed RV park code) and the lack of enforcement on the conditional use permit, I take umbrage at that tone,” Samuel said.

“Well I take umbrage at your revisionist recollection of the discussion, and changing it at the last minute and making a pronouncement is inappropriate,” Wood said.

In essence, Wood said he wanted the council to allow Monte Square to opt into the RV code language without having to go before the hearing examiner.

“I very clearly recall our discussion in public works committee and our discussion in council that with regard to becoming an RV park that the existing campground would not have to go to the hearing examiner,” he said. Monte Square is defined as a campground under the city’s current code. “Having an existing business and telling them they have to go get permission to be what they are is really a ridiculous thing for us to contemplate.”

Samuel’s position is that Monte Square currently operates under a conditional use permit within the city’s current municipal code.

“The Chung property is still under a conditional use permit and it needs to go back to the hearings officer, and the Chungs and the hearings officer will have to decide whether or not they move forward under modification process under the RV ordinance or if the conditional use permit is modified,” Samuel said.

Monte Square is owned by the Chung family. Antony Chung was a city councilman until his resignation on Nov. 14. Chung had been barred from speaking on the matter while he was a councilman. During the Nov. 28 meeting, no longer an elected official, Chung spoke out about the proposed RV code.

Chung said the proposed RV code is vague, especially language that would allow the city to inspect the RV park’s visitor logs. The RV code would mandate that Monte Square maintain a log of who stays at the park, including their birthdates.

“I feel like we’re being monitored and targeted, and I just wish there was a bit more clarification,” Chung said. “It’s funny because the laws in the city that require limits and regulation are not being required for the same kind of policing, so I wonder why the RV park is since we’re the only RV park in existence.”

The proposed RV code also says it’s a misdemeanor to violate the code. Chung took exception to that as well.

“I want to get spelled out what’s criminalized and why it’s criminalized,” Chung said. “Most of these are civil penalties and not a misdemeanor crime. I feel like this is a little waste of police power to make it criminal.”

Samuel said the proposed RV code has been well vetted by legal staff.

City attorney Chris Coker said the misdemeanor language allows the city to enforce the code.

“We put in what we thought was a hammer. It’s a big hammer,” Coker said. “The city doesn’t jump to that provision right away. It usually takes some time to get there. I would anticipate that would apply here.”