Ken Graham: From the Publisher

The Columbia County Planning Commission considered a proposal this week to make a significant change to the zoning code in Columbia County. On Monday the commission held a public hearing to take comments on a revision that would allow on-site sales of agricultural-related products by businesses as a "conditional use" in the Agricultural/Residential-1 zone. It then held a vote. (I was at that meeting and I'll get back to it in a moment.)

There's a map on Page 5 that shows exactly where the AR-1 zones in Columbia County are located. (They're the light blue parts.) They line the main roads out of town, including highway 12, as well as the North and South Touchet Roads. Most of Huntsville is also zoned AR-1. The zone was established to encourage development of smaller mixed residential and agricultural parcels on the outskirts of town. But not commercial businesses.

The new language that would be added to the list of conditional uses allowed in the AR-1 zone is as follows: "On-site sales of farm products, processed and/or packaged on site, including nursery, meat, dairy, orchard, vineyard, hay, winery, brewery, distillery and similar products, together with on-site sales of other agricultural based products, including wine, beer and spirits with tasting room (subject to Washington State Liquor Control Board license)."

That all sounds pretty benign, right? At least it does until you get to the words "together with." It starts out with a nice list of tourist-friendly agricultural activities, and then adds to it, "together with other agricultural based products."

Well let's seehellip; Fruit Loops are an agricultural based product. So are donuts and cigarettes. Most of what's sold in a grocery store is agricultural based. So is most of what's sold in a tavern. (Including the cotton T-shirts with the tavern's logo.)

The sentence gives nice tidy lists of products at the beginning and end that sound good, but those lists are meaningless. It's like telling your kids that they are allowed to watch Sesame Street and the Disney Channel "together with" anything else that's on TV.

The proposal would allow on-site sales of ANY agricultural-based product as a conditional use, whether it's made there or somewhere else. Yes, the business would have to obtain a conditional use permit in order to operate, and the county could put conditions on it. But in order to deny a conditional use permit, the county would have to prove that the business posed a serious nuisance. That's very hard to do.

So if someone wanted to open a grocery store or a tavern among the houses up the North Touchet Road south of Dayton, it would be pretty hard to argue that it's not allowed. (With all of those skiers coming off the mountain in the winter, it might just be tempting.) What about a liquor store in Huntsville? Or a nightclub on the way to my house on the South Touchet? (Sure, that's unlikely, but planners can't ignore things just because they're unlikely.)

The proposed zoning change is being made by Joan and Pierre-Louis Monteillet, who have been running a cheese-making operation, called Monteillet Fromagerie, for at least a couple of decades on their property west of Dayton. Yes, it's located in an AR-1 zone. Their business has expanded over the years to the point where now they have a retail cheese shop, a tasting room and hold regular wine tasting events. (They added that "together with" part to their proposed language because they sell wine that is not made on site.)

The Columbia County Planning Department in- formed the Monteillets a few years ago that their business violates current zoning regulations. They've requested the zoning change to allow their business to continue to operate as it currently does.

At Monday's hearing, about two dozen people spoke up in favor of the zoning change. All of them spoke warmly of the Monteillets and their business, and how valuable it is in drawing tourists and providing a wonderful product to local restaurants. No one spoke against the change. More than half the speakers live in Walla Walla County.

(In the end, the commission sensibly voted against recommending the change. Perhaps most of its members have a better understanding of zoning issues than those speakers do. The recommendation will be passed on to the County Commissioners, who will make the final determination.)

Many speakers bemoaned that the county would be stifling tourist-related businesses if it turned down the zoning revision. But there are plenty of places in the county that those businesses can freely operate. The county and city of Dayton have lots of areas zoned commercial and industrial. More than three-quarters of the privately owned land in Columbia County is in a purely agricultural (A-1) zone. According to Columbia County Planning Director Kim Lyonnais, the Monteillet's business would be fully compliant with zoning in the A-1 zone, which is not intended to be primarily residential.

I'm sure everything the speakers Monday said about the value to the community of the Monteillet's business was true, and it would be great if they could continue to operate their business. But the language they are proposing is too broad and too vague. It opens up a residential zone to the types of businesses that most of us wouldn't want near our homes.