New twists in the Wild Mountain food stand saga

Once again, Ky Karnecki, owner of the Wild Mountain food stand, made a plea to the city council on Thursday to avoid having to move his stand from its current location on the southeast corner of Locust and Highway 20.

When polled by Mayor Brad Boyd, none of the five councilors indicated an interest in revising the city building code to allow the stand to remain. The council's decision not to act would seem to bring the contentious matter to a close.

Karnecki stated, "I find that shameful. If I have to move my building I will not be coming back to Sisters."

The Wild Mountain food stand opened in July of 2011 on a temporary-use permit. The conditions of that permit allow the business to operate for six months, after which it must close down for 60 days before a new permit can be requested. According to the code, the temporary building must be removed during this shut-down period.

Since his first shut-down on December 31, 2012, Karnecki has campaigned to keep his building year-round on the site. He also campaigned for a 270-day temporary permit. With a three-month extension to the original six-month permit and an additional nine-month permit, Wild Mountain was allowed to be in operation for 18 months without removal of the structure.

Although the code clearly states that the building must be removed, that was not specifically noted on Karnecki's first temporary permit. Karnecki has asserted that he was told that the removal requirement would probably not be enforced. At his direction, the building was constructed on skids.

Karnecki and his supporters have rallied around the fact that Richard's Produce operated under a temporary-use permit (TUP) for seven years without having to remove his building.

Richard's and Wild Mountain were issued official notices this year that they would have to move their buildings at the end of the season in accordance with the temporary-use permit requirements. City staff subsequently discovered that Richard's had been granted permanent status years before and shouldn't have been under a TUP at all.

Former council member Sharlene Weed addressed city attorney Steve Bryant at Thursday's meeting: "Steve, are you saying that the council does not have the authority (to ignore the code) for two months? The code was ignored for seven years to allow Richards to stay there, and Ky's building was there for the last two seasons and the planning department said that you don't have to move it.

"In January (2012) you said that the planning director has the authority to enforce the code or not," continued Weed. "Really, it seems a little bit silly that for a few months' variance there isn't somehow a way to do that."

Bryant countered saying, "The planning director can't simply say 'I am not going to enforce the code'. The planning director has to enforce the code right up to the point that there is a pending change to the code ... then she can stop issuing citations simply because the code may be changing."

That statement, however, is at odds with advice Bryan offered to planning director Pauline Hardie in September 2011, before the planning commission or council took up the question of revising the code.

In that email exchange, discovered by Karnecki after a public records request, Hardee asked Bryant, "Should we give them (Wild Mountain) a year since we haven't been enforcing Richard's this entire time?"

Bryant responded: "First, you can decide if you want to enforce the code provisions or not."

Karnecki was not successful in convincing either the planning commission or the city council to change the code despite many hours of often-contentious discussions, and numerous accusations of bad faith by Karnecki and his supporters.

After several hearings and much discussion in late March 2012 the planning commission voted 5-0 the keep the TUP code unchanged, allowing a temporary business to stay open only 180 days in a given 365-day period. The commission voted 3-2 against allowing the structure to remain in place year-round.

In mid-April 2012 the city council voted 5-0 to approve the planning commission's recommendations.

In May 2012 the planning commission rejected the concept of a "holiday extension" proposed by Karnecki that would allow businesses on a TUP to extend their 180 days to allow them to operate through the holidays.

In a final twist to the story, Joseph L. Daugherty, of Specialty Mushrooms LLC out of Culver, indicated to the council that he would like to buy Karnecki's business once the permitting issues were sorted out. Daugherty was referred to Economic Development Manager Patty Cordoni.