How We See It: Cities Must Maintain Accountability In Permits

"The city spent $400,000 on a study to clean up downtown; if this commission can't clean up downtown, we wasted $400,000."

-- Gene Kelley, attorney

The law office of Gene Kelley is almost directly across Walnut Street from Mike's Automotive, 318 W. Walnut St. As one can tell from Kelley's recent comment to the Rogers Planning Commission, the idea of what's best for downtown Rogers may depend on who you ask.

Mike McLeod runs an auto shop in a leased property that once was a gas station. The property is directly across from the Rogers/Lowell Chamber of Commerce. The business, according to some of its neighbors, is unsightly.

Why is it anyone's business to tell McLeod how to run his? Well, to some extent, it's the Rogers Planning Commission's job.

Anyone who runs a business for very long within a city sooner or later finds out there are certain rules to live by, many of them designed to make sure land uses that would conflict with each other aren't operated in the same area. McLeod's business has operated since 2009 under a permit taken out by a former business partner. McLeod apparently didn't know until recently that he needed a permit, and the issue came before the Planning Commission.

The document involved is called a conditional-use permit, which is just as it sounds: A certain use is permitted, but only under specified conditions. According to city code, a conditional-use permit is issued to a person, not a business.

What's the issue? Well, it's the prototypical planning conflict -- a mechanic's shop with multiple cars side by side in various states of repair or disrepair operating in an area where its neighbors see it as, well, blight.

It's relevant, too, that in 2014, Rogers' downtown is taking in what many believe are its first breaths of new life. The city has indeed invested heavily in a study of redevelopment and leaders want to see downtown Rogers become a destination. For residents and visitors, not broken-down cars.

In the end, the commission gave McLeod a temporary conditional-use permit, with new limits on the number of cars stored there, a pledge for a privacy fence on the west and south sides of the building and a promise to clean up the site. Ostensibly, the permit will be revisited in six months.

Rogers planners also recently came close to pulling a permit for a car dealership on North Second Street because of alleged violations of its conditions. Then the city discovered the permit is issued to owner Martin Sandoval failed to articulate the conditions commissioners thought they had previously outlined.

Both situations reflect the vital importance of cities establishing and monitoring adherence to conditional-use permits. Business owners need to be held accountable, and city residents no doubt expect their city government not to wait around for a complaint before expecting city-dictated conditions to be followed.

Few would want a stiff-necked, uncompromising level of enforcement, but if conditional-use permits are predicated on actual conditions to which a business agrees to adhere, the city should follow up on that regularly to protect the public's interests.

It's easier said than done, but it can be done: Set the terms, then establish accountability.