Conservation Board agrees to Kewash trail easement

After an hourlong closed session of discussion, the Washington County Conservation Board agreed to sell 2,830 square feet of the Kewash Nature Trail to the owners of a duplex built on a lot that would otherwise be too small for occupancy under Washington city code.

“This board is going to take grief from this no matter what, we knew that going into this,” Conservation Board Member Stan Stoops said. “Whether we sold it or didn’t sell it, we were going to take grief from the public.”

The board sold the land for $28,300. At exactly $10 per square foot, twice the offer proposed by duplex owner Matt Lepic earlier in the meeting.

Board members unanimously voted against such an easement in July, saying they didn’t want to set a precedent for selling conservation board land. The high price point was set in an effort to maintain that policy.

“We were pretty reluctant to sell a piece of property,” Conservation Director Zach Rozmus said. “That’s a pretty large amount of money, and hopefully that makes it pretty clear that it was a hard decision to come to.“

Despite the risk of opening the floodgates for easement requests, Board President Craig Capps said members felt it was the right thing to do.

“Our thinking was if somebody didn’t do something, that house was just going to sit there forever and it would just be a nightmare,” he said.

Lepic accepted the offer, saying he was grateful.

“I mean obviously it’s a large amount of money, but at the same time it’s a resolution,” he said. “Now we can move forward with letting somebody live in the property.”

Despite the high price, Lepic said the new costs would not fall to potential buyers of the units, which were last listed at $215,000 according to their MLS sheets.

“Nothing is changing with the price of the home whatsoever,” he said.

The move came after a ruling against a variance from the Washington Board of Adjustment in late September, which Lepic said he thought was unfair.

“We felt we were attacked by them, basically we were told to be quiet and sit down,” he said. “I understand they have their jobs to do and you guys do as well, we just don’t want to see everything that we’ve put into this just end up sitting there.”

Despite recommendations from some board members to “go after” the city for that reason, Lepic said he didn’t plan to do so.

“The last thing I want to do is also cause more issues,” Lepic said. “Even though they’re causing me grief with the way that they treated us, I also still want to be able to build and develop and do homes here.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com