A monster garage with room enough for 20 RVs is under construction in a rural Lake Stevens neighborhood.
Outside, a sign reads “Out of space? Own a private storage unit.”
Just plop down $35,000 to own a 14-foot-by-36-foot garage.
The 276-foot-long building is proof that RV condominiums have arrived in Snohomish County.
“People continue to buy toys and have no place to put them,” said the builder, Dave Johnson of DB Johnson Construction. “There is a market.”
RVs, boats and ATVs can clutter a driveway on suburban postage-stamp lots, annoying neighbors, Johnson said.
He’s even applied to build another 3,000-square-foot garage on the same land.
“I don’ t believe there’s a trend; I don’t believe anybody is doing them besides us,” Johnson said.
Even so, Snohomish County officials feared such huge buildings were becoming a trend, taking advantage of what they called a loophole in county rules.
That perceived loophole was closed Wednesday by the County Council, which adopted emergency rules to bring scrutiny to garages larger than 1,800 square feet – about the size of a six-car garage.
Last week, county rules allowed garages to be built on residential property without standards, county chief planning officer Linda Kuller said.
It was a nod to rural Snohomish County land where garages were often built before a house, Kuller said. Big corrugated steel buildings have become part of the bucolic landscape in the rural county.
“There were no limits or standards on the size,” she said. Twelve garages larger than 4,000 square feet were built under county rules last year; four of them were larger than 9,000 square feet.
In 1995, the county approved 193 garages larger than 1,000 square feet; last year, there were 251.
Builders face restrictions if they want to build storage units, but not so with garages, Kuller said. Once builders figured that out, they reapplied to build garages.
“I don’t agree with the term ‘loophole,’” Johnson said. “These are simply allowable uses of properties.”
Johnson’s corrugated steel garage faces neighbor Rick Rice.
“This building is completely out of place in a residential neighborhood,” Rice said. “I’m a victim of greed.”
There was no warning the building was going up, Rice said. Rice objects to the large garage next to his house because he feels it’s a commercial activity in a neighborhood.
Johnson also built a four-garage RV condo near Lake Goodwin in 2004, and three of the bays sold for more than $30,000 each.
One of the garages went to Ray Mueller of Stanwood, who spent $31,500 for a 36-foot-long space. He intended it for an RV, but now it holds his 20-foot ski boat.
“It’s safe, it’s clean, it’s ours,” said Mueller, general manager of the Camano Island Windermere. “We’re gaining equity instead of just renting.”
The state Condominium Act allows buildings to be sold in pieces, and has been used for hangars at Paine Field, marinas and now RV garages.
Interim county rules are barred from singling out condos for special rules, so they instead attempt to impose building standards on big garages in general.
Final rules will follow public meetings with developers.
The county’s effort to restrict these kinds of buildings interferes with the market that has emerged to solve people’s space needs, Johnson said.
“It’ll put a stop to a lot of people’s business, and it’s cutting into ours and other people’s property rights,” Johnson said.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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