By Meredith Griffith

Reporter

Will the nonprofit thrift shop and recycling center Community Treasures continue operating into 2017? That depends.

Frank Penwell, who began Community Treasures (CT) in 2004 and owns the Roche Harbor Road property on which it operates, has passed the organization’s leadership to a board. This August Penwell announced he would terminate CT’s current $100 per month lease on the property, and the organization so far has nowhere to relocate.

Penwell cited long-term opposition from the county, saying, “during the last five-plus years CT has experienced numerous hassles and broken county promises that have cost thousands of dollars and caused personal pain and resentment.” He recently told a gathering of CT supporters at the Mullis Senior Center, “CT is currently at a crossroads that will determine if it is going to be a permanent perpetual organization, or fall by the wayside like so many past community ideas.”

At the heart of Penwell’s frustration is the San Juan County government’s ongoing declination to designate his 4.86-acre property, for which he obtained commercial construction permits in 1978, as a commercial/industrial property. Over the past 38 years, he has repeatedly asked county representatives through letters, emails and phone calls, to change his property designation to reflect his original and ongoing commercial activity. Instead, he has been directed to obtain “conditional use permits” reflecting activities on his property considered “non-conforming,” or undesirable. Penwell, who founded CT with his wife Patricia in 2004, says the nonprofit has paid $45,000 as a result of this disconnect.

Council member Jamie Stephens said, “Over the past few years Mr. Penwell has asked that the county declare CT an essential public facility and take over operation, change the land use designation, and allow the operation to expand. CT has not applied for these changes through the planning department. In order to expand, the land use designation would need to be changed. This requires a county-wide land use analysis and public input. This will be done during the [San Juan County] Comprehensive Plan update 2017- 2018.” Councilman Rick Hughes said it’s important to know that the county is not currently challenging CT’s daily activities, which are sanctioned by its current Conditional Use Permit, nor have county officials threatened to shut CT down.

Council member Bob Jarman says he got the CT land use designation issue placed “on the docket,” but said the discussion could “very likely be rolled into next year” instead of being settled in 2016.

“I have always supported CT for what they do and what it contributes back to the community,” he said. According to Jarman, historically it had been standard procedure for the county to consider land use petitions each year, making minor changes to the comprehensive plan in response. But that annual process had fallen by the wayside under the two most recent past department directors – until 2013, when Jarman was elected and helped re-establish the docket process.

“That’s where Frank’s request would fall through in the past, in my opinion,” said Jarman. Now that the issue is on the docket, it’s only a matter of time until CT’s land use designation comes up for discussion by the council.

At present, Penwell said the organization gives away $2,500 per month to programs benefitting the community; in May 2016 they distributed $3,000 to Spring Street Recovery House, $2,000 to Prevention Coalition, and $2,000 in scholarships. CT has eight employees who actually dismantle and sort recyclable materials, keeping as much out of the landfill as possible. Using specialized balers, in 2015 they recycled 409 tons of materials; that included 88 tons of electronics, 36 tons of textiles, 57 tons of appliances, 68 tons of ferrous metals, 46 tons of concrete and other specific materials.

Penwell added, “We also cut firewood and kindling for some elderly from the wood we recycle. We provide helping hand services for the elderly and those in need: providing free services, giving them items that are needed but they can’t afford like the vet with missing legs and we set up his household for him or the lady in a wheelchair who needed extra help and services to set up their households, people who need walkers, and such.”

Since 2009, CT has been handling the county’s E-recycling, a service required of the county by state law. County council members and staff confirm that CT offers reuse and recycling services not provided by another entity on the island. The San Juan Island transfer station is currently limited to handling garbage, commingled recycling, appliances, batteries and motor oil/antifreeze.

Unfortunately, regardless of what happens with the land use designation, Penwell says he is no longer willing to personally support the organization by providing his property at the current $100/month lease rate. Last August, Penwell announced his intent to establish the organization as an independent permanent charitable community thrift shop and recycling center. Penwell offered to donate property and equipment worth $290,000 to CT, and asked the San Juan community to collectively purchase his Roche Harbor Road property at a remaining cost of $653,000 plus closing costs. This proposal has not yet received enough financial support to be enacted.

Penwell said Penwell Trust is looking for “some kind of [financial] commitment” from the community or the county to support Community Treasure’s purchase of the property by Jan. 31, 2017, in order for CT to stay in operation. While the discussion has not yet come before the council for official discussion, Hughes said he feels the county has no business managing solid waste operations, noting that they just got out of the business and adding for example, “ORS is doing the job ten times better than the county did.” While Orcas Recycling Services operates on county-owned property, unlike Community Treasures, it is relevant to note that San Juan County recently agreed to pay up to $600,000 toward the cost of the new Orcas Exchange building shell out of its Capital Facilities budget, while Orcas Recycling Services will foot the remainder of construction costs to “occupancy” completion level.

CT has been the subject of controversy and has been considered “non-conforming” by the San Juan County government for the entirety of its 12-year existence. Penwell began operating his business, Island Wholesale Products, on his property in 1978. At that time, Penwell says he applied for commercial permits and paid the fee for a commercial driveway permit. In 1979, when the county created its first comprehensive plan, Penwell wrote the county a letter explaining that he was already operating a commercial business on the property, but received no reply. “I was too dumb at that time to get an attorney,” he says. The property was eventually zoned R10, Rural Farm Forest, which does not allow commercial use.

The Penwells founded CT in 2004; in 2005, the organization had to apply for a conditional use permit (CUP) in order to continue operating.

“The problem with being considered “non-conforming” is that every time you make any changes in business, add a use or another building, you have to apply for another conditional use permit,” said Penwell.

Over the years, Penwell says he has applied for four conditional use permits in order to expand or alter his commercial operations on the property.

Penwell said his land-use designation troubles got truly cumbersome in 2011, when he was president of the Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights and the county was working on the comprehensive plan. He said the politics on both sides became a bit heated, adding, “It became a political issue rather than a recycling issue.”

At the time, the county responded to an alleged complaint by neighbors by conducting an inspection of the CT property. Penwell says the county had recorded designated uses for the CT buildings that were different from his original application, and as a result the county required him to reapply for a new CUP showing the actual uses, at a cost of over $100 per building. In 2012, Penwell announced that he would close down CT. In an email to Penwell, then county planner Shireene Hale said she would propose county-led rezoning of the property to then county administrator Pete Rose and the county council.

In response, Penwell says he kept CT running, and applied for and got his fourth conditional use permit. The rezoning did not occur; instead of identifying CT as an essential public facility and changing the land use designation of the property to Rural Commercial, San Juan County amended the rules and regulations for recycling facilities.

This July, on the Penwell’s behalf, land use planner Francine Shaw wrote to county planning coordinator Linda Kuller, asking that the property be rezoned to Rural Commercial. She wrote, “The Penwells ask that the county amend their definition of an essential public facility to include privately owned businesses as allowed by WAC 365-196- 550(1.b) and update their list of “essential public facilities” in Appendix 7 of the existing Comprehensive Plan, Capital Facilities Inventory, as required under WAC 365-196- 550(1.a) to include CT, Take It or Leave It, and the Exchange.” Shaw added, “The Penwells realize that by re-designating this property to RGU, CUP applications will still be required under the current county code. But, at least, the re-designation would accurately reflect the commercial/industrial use of this property, removing it from any non-conformity, and allowing CT to continue to provide the recycling services and resale of used items this island so severely depends on.”

To date, Penwell says CT has paid around $45,000 in permit fees, a county-required road study, land use fees, and attorney fees, in addition to lost revenue from days the organization was closed down.

Penwell cites difficulties with county administration dating from 1987 – far beyond the experience of any current council members or planning department employees. It’s difficult to verify the verbal history interlaced between Penwell’s meticulous printed and email records of these interactions. But the fact is, Penwell has operated CT for the past 12 years, and says he’s now ready to pass the torch to the broader community. It is a good time for a careful assessment: of what practical value is CT to our community and county? CT already has all the equipment needed to operate. It has trained employees, and it has the experience to meet the island’s recycling and reuse needs. If CT closes, how would the county meet its E-cycling, recycling and reuse needs? Would another organization step up to take its place? If so, where could it operate? The 2010 county comprehensive plan states the goal “To reduce the volume of the waste stream through effective and sustained waste reduction and recycling efforts.” The 2011 planning commission concluded that “there is an insufficient quantity of appropriately designated land to accommodate future essential public facility demand,” and recommended that the county identify and redesignate land for Rural Industrial and Urban Industrial uses.

“Look at the county land use map, and the 2012 Comprehensive Plan changes,” says Penwell. “There is no other place to go.”

This year during its review process, San Juan County governance could designate Penwell’s property an Essential Public Facility site; this could reduce future struggles for CT as it seeks to grow and evolve to meet community needs. Jarman is positive about the situation, saying, “We are moving forward and I am confident we can get the land redesignated so that CT will be a compliant land use.”

But if CT loses its lease and is unable to raise enough support to purchase the property, changing the land use designation won’t be enough.

“It would be a loss to the community if CT closed its doors,” Jarman added. “It is the only E-recycler on the island. It gives back to the community. It provides jobs. I will continue to work with CT and hopefully we will have a positive outcome.”

For info, visit www.ctrecycling.org/, or visit the new Facebook page called “Save CT” started by San Juan Islander Stephanie Prima.