Charles City Council considers recreational vehicle, mules more at planning session

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

People advocating for mules, utility vehicle access and accessory buildings all sought support from the Charles City Council at a planning session Monday evening.

No official action is taken at a planning meeting, but council members discussed each item and indicated they will keep considering the requests.

Mike and Jamie Reicherts requested permission from the council to keep four mules on property they want to buy within the city limits on the far north side of the city, north of L&J Industries and northeast of Washington Elementary School, in the 1900 block of Cleveland Avenue.

“The property is 10 acres of heavily wooded land,” Jamie Reicherts wrote to the city. “We would like to put four mules on this property as my husband is a Cowboy Chaplin and we use them in our ministry. We would need to clear some trees to make a border fence around the property. We would also need to put up some buildings to accommodate us.”

City Administrator Steve Diers said city code allows the council to grant permission for livestock within city limits.

“It’s conceivable that it would work there,” he said, adding that the area being requested is generally removed from other properties or many adjacent neighbors.

In the past the council has usually but not always turned down requests to allow livestock in the city, the most recent requests involving raising chickens.

“It’s location, location, location,” Diers said. The requests that had been turned down were for properties with adjoining neighbors within the city, while those few that had been approved were generally on the edges of town.

Diers said Council Member Jerry Joerger was against granting permission, saying livestock should not be allowed in the city, but the other council members looked more favorably on the request.

The request will likely be an action item on the agenda at next Tuesday evening’s council meeting — held Tuesday instead of Monday because of the observance of the Independence Day holiday — Diers said.

Wendy Gerber requested that the council consider allowing utility vehicles such as UTVs and ATVs to use city streets. She was specifically requesting permission to use the vehicles at certain times, such as for snow removal, because it would be much easier to drive the vehicles from location to location to move snow than to have to trailer them to each location.

But Diers said the discussion turned to more general questions of year-round UTV and ATV access in the city.

The state gives cities the authority to decide if, when and where they will allow these types of vehicle to use city streets and what kind of safety equipment, insurance and registration they are required to have, he said.

Some communities have granted permission for street access to golf carts as well as other recreational vehicles and set requirements as far as lights, turn signals, flags or other signage, and also required that they be registered with the city.

One consideration in Charles City is there are two state highways that go through town and recreational vehicles are not allowed to use state roads, although they are allowed to cross them, Diers said.

A group including council member DeLaine Freeseman, Gerber and Chuck Meyer agreed to continue researching the question along with city staff. Meyer has also been an advocate for Floyd County loosening its recreational vehicle guidelines to allow more access on county roads, which the county did in June 2020.

Rick Cordes, who lives a couple of miles outside the city limits, renewed his request for permission to build a three-stall unattached garage on a vacant lot he owns in the city on 6th Avenue east of J Street.

Current city zoning rules allows a city resident to build an accessory building on a vacant lot that is not adjacent to their home property, but does not allow it for people who do not live in the city limits.

Diers said the council referred the matter to the city Planning and Zoning Commission.

Some of the discussion, since the city is in the process of updating its zoning code, is whether to create another zoning level between business zoning and manufacturing zoning that would potentially allow construction of some type of storage buildings but wouldn’t allow more expanded uses, he said.

Diers said the council also briefly discussed the progress of the new Charley Western Recreational Trail Bridge across the Cedar River by R Campground. He said the bridge part of the structure is essentially complete and he hopes it can be opened to pedestrian and bike traffic within a couple of weeks.

“We’re still about seven weeks away from the lights showing up, and they can’t start grass seeding until mid-August to September,” he said, but the contractor said he didn’t see a problem with opening it in the interim.

“So hopefully in the next two weeks we’ll be able to open the gates there and let people use it,” he said. “In my mind I can see a soft opening, letting people use it, then when we have the lights and everything installed having an official ribbon-cutting.”