County Commissioners Meeting
Author: Eliza McLaughlin - Staff Reporter
County Commissioners Meeting Eliza McLaughlin
Properties, Properties and More Properties: Broadwater County Commissioners
The Broadwater County Commissioners considered several issues regarding three properties within the county: a family transfer and property boundary change, an aggregation of two lots and a discussion on the Brady BLR Building.
First came a discussion on the aggregation of two properties owned by Monique and Steven Helsen.
Although Broadwater County Acting Attorney Jania Hatfield told the Commissioners that she had found a legal means by which to justify the combination of the properties, she warned that the properties existed under separate subdivisions and the new lot would be required to follow both of their covenants and pay their fees.
It would then be up to the property owner to determine how to address conflicting covenants.
Commissioner Debi Randolph said she wanted the property owner to be well aware of the requirements before moving forward with the aggregation. The commissioners tabled the discussion and decision.
Next came a case for a family transfer and a property boundary change on a property owned by Johnny Kurtz.
While Hatfield said the property has undergone several family transfers and boundary changes in the past and posed a concern for evasion of subdivision regulations, Bernadette Swenson of Schauber Surveying clarified that previous surveys had only been used for property boundary changes and that no new lots were created until the newly requested family transfer.
Commission Chair Darrel Folkvord expressed concern that the property boundary change proposed alongside the family transfer could lead to more homes without review by the Department of Environmental Quality.
“I think if Kurtz could provide some more assurances for us, we might be able to,” Folkvord said.
Folkvord also said that he worried misuse of the family transfer laws could be in danger this legislative session and wanted to avoid misuse of the law.
Randolph motioned to approve Kurtz’s request, but it died without a second motion. Swenson said she would arrange for Kurtz to attend a meeting to state his case.
The final property issue considered during the Nov. 14 meeting was the discussion and decision on the Brady BLR Building for lease or rent.
Broadwater Community Development Director Nichole Brown proposed an amendment that would prevent the owners from selling individual storage units to address Randolph’s concerns about the building being used for residential purposes.
Hatfield worried that the verbiage would infringe on the property owner’s rights and requested that the council wait until she could do further legal research.
