Mtn. Shadow RV park may host restaurant

The owner of the Mountain Shadow RV Park is considering a fast food restaurant, such as a McDonald's, for the site.

Last week, the Sisters City Council refused to allow semi-permanent modular units, classified by the state as RVs but not really vehicles, to be placed on the property.

According to Tom Anderson, general manager of the Comfort Inn and the RV Park, a restaurant is one of the outright permitted uses in the highway commercial zone.

Anderson denied that RV park owner Wayne Scott was trying to tweak the city for its refusal "to allow RVs in the RV park." Anderson said that the fast food restaurant would simply help the RV park sustain itself during the winter months.

"The (Comfort Inn) motel does maintain itself. The RV park does not," Anderson said.

"Mr. Scott asked me to get information on what are the outright permitted uses of the property," said Anderson. Those include a gas station, laundromat, car wash and restaurant, according to Anderson.

But there is already a laundromat on the property, there is a gas station next door, and a car wash was not interesting to the owner.

"The preference is to continue to run the RV park, but we need to find some way to offset the losses during the winter," Anderson said.

If the owner decides to build a restaurant on the property, it would not necessarily be a McDonald's, said Anderson.

"Mr. Scott owns considerable stock in the Country Kitchen chain," said Anderson. Scott also owns four motels, one of which is being expanded, a fifth is under construction and a sixth is in the planning stages, Anderson said.

These projects may push changes here to a back burner, Anderson indicated.