County denies permit to trailer sales lot

Calling it a junkyard that doesn’t fit in the neighborhood, the Kootenai County Commission denied a Chilco man a permit Wednesday to run his used mobile home sales yard along U.S. Highway 95. Repo Depot owner Larry Spencer vowed to appeal the decision, arguing the property is zoned to allow commercial sales and that he has complied with all the county rules. “From what I’ve heard, there’s not a legal basis for the denial,” said Spencer, who wasn’t at the commission meeting. The county has fought with Spencer for the past year, asking him to bring the sale yard into compliance or remove the mobile homes. The county filed a lawsuit against Spencer last year, prompting him to apply for the permit. Deputy County Attorney John Cafferty said the county will continue with the lawsuit, which he said should force Spencer to either comply with county rules or remove the homes. Spencer sells the trailers, many of which don’t have windows or doors, to people in Bonner and Boundary counties because many of them are too old to comply with Kootenai County and Washington standards. “Some of the buildings look like they are unlivable by anybody’s code,” Commissioner Rick Currie said. Commissioner Gus Johnson called the business a junkyard. Neighbors in the Chilco area just south of the Rimrock Golf Course agreed, and told commissioners at a public hearing last week that the trailers are eyesores where transients often sleep. The sales yard is in front of Chilco Falls, a county park. Jack Cardwell, who lives just north of the sales yard, said he was pleased with the commission’s decision and that the trailers aren’t homes but “wobble boxes.” “What I want to happen now is to get those junk trailers out of there,” he said. Spencer told the commission last week that they shouldn’t shut down his business because some say it creates an eyesore. Spencer maintains that he is allowed to have the sales yard because the land is zoned commercial. He said other commercial uses — including a log home business, tavern and feed store — were allowed on the same property. And he doesn’t understand why the county wants him to make improvements to the site, including landscaping and fencing, because he never has applied for a building permit or requested permission to move dirt on the property. He interprets county rules to read that improvements are only needed if he requests either a building or site disturbance permit. Spencer added that it doesn’t make economic sense to spend $300,000 on upgrades when the Idaho Transportation Department will probably take over a large portion of the property when it eventually widens U.S. 95.