Washington County closes deal on Kewash easement

The Washington County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a purchase agreement that sells 2,830 square feet of the Kewash Nature Trail to Matnic LLC for $28,300 at a meeting Tuesday morning. The deal functionally expands an adjacent duplex lot owned by the real estate company to a habitable size under city code.

Supervisors acknowledged the sale’s controversy during a public hearing. The developer drew criticism after a dramatic string of local government meetings where officials found the house was built without a permit, and sought zoning approval after construction was nearly complete.

“This is not on you guys, this is on the city of Washington allowing something to happen and forcing your hand,” Supervisor Marcus Fedler said. “This is the city of Washington and an overzealous developer coming in and doing something and then forcing the county to make this decision … somebody needs to accept responsibility for this. If it’s the city, that’s great. If it’s the developer, that’s great. But at the end of the day, nobody is standing up and saying, ‘This is my bad,’ and I think that’s what’s gotten the bad taste in the mouth of the community.”

Fedler said he remained upset about having to make the call, despite thinking it was the right choice.

“The County, the Conservation Board is being put in a position to basically have to do this,” he said. “This is why zoning has always been, to me, a reprehensible process because usually if you’ve got enough money, you can fix anything, and this is what drives me up the wall about this whole thing … I wanted to bring that up because some people in the community felt they couldn’t bring that up publicly, and I wanted to be their voice.”

Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said the county should have charged more for the land.

“I think that’s another issue: if you have money, it can cure anything, but is it going to hurt you?” he said. “You can learn that you can just plow some more money into it and do whatever you want to do, or you can learn that if you don’t follow the rules, it’s going to hurt you … paying an extra $28,000, that’s 10% of the budget for building a duplex, so I don’t know that $28,000 is going to bring that issue to light to enough people that it’s not going to happen again.”

With final approval of the sale returning to the conservation board, Conservation Director Zach Rozmus said he was eager to move beyond the issue.

“I will say, historically, conservation and the city have worked really well together, I want to continue to work really well together, so I’m trying to maneuver this as best I can,” he said. “With that being said, both sides made significant errors in this circumstance to get to the point where conservation was the neighbor that had to be approached.”

Supervisor and conservation board member Stan Stoops said the group was committed to not setting an expectation with the agreement.

“No precedent was set on the money that we will ask for if this ever happens again,” he said. “If this ever happens again for similar reasons, it’s going to be more than double … we’re going to stick to that if it ever comes up again, as long as I’m on the board.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com