Confusion abounds as BZA upholds Mendes appeal of flood plain violations

BZA Vice-Chair Lorraine Smelser, chairing the meeting in the absence of Chairman David Feiring, and members Robert Conway and Ron Wickenman was that the structures “will meet the planning department requirements.” Photos and video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

Confusion and a sense of vindication – though nebulous in its ultimate resolution – was the reaction of Nelson Mendes and his attorney Timothy R. Johnson in the wake of a 25-minute Warren County Board of Zoning Appeals hearing Thursday evening, September 5.

Zoning Administrator Joe Petty

During that hearing a three-member quorum of the five-member BZA voted unanimously to approve Mendes’s appeal of an earlier ruling of the County’s then-Deputy Zoning Administrator Joe Petty that buildings on Mendes’s Agriculturally-zoned Stoney Bottom Road property in Thunderbird Farms were not complaint with County Codes regarding flood plain requirements. Petty explained to Royal Examiner that he was elevated from deputy to Zoning Administrator on July 1 as this situation was evolving.

In fact, it was Petty himself who presented the recommendation for reversal of his earlier stance rendered on May 1 that would have required $318 and change in permits alone to begin bringing the structures in question into compliance. Those structures include two metal buildings, one hoop greenhouse and one deck.

Petty’s statement to BZA Vice-Chair Lorraine Smelser, chairing the meeting in the absence of Chairman David Feiring, and members Robert Conway and Ron Wickenman was that the structures “will meet the planning department requirements.”

It reversed Petty’s draft statement of August 29 included in the meeting packet, which read, “Since the August meeting the Warren County Zoning Administrator is continuing to support the original determination that all structures … require permits in order to ensure that they meet the requirements for flood proofing as described in the federal guidelines.”

Thursday evening Petty said all that was required was a $10 zoning permit and a little additional information on the deck structure.

Mendes’s attorney was prepared to present a detailed explanation of his client’s case that he was not in violation of any county, federal or state codes in response to the draft statement of continued support of Petty’s original determination.

After the meeting, Royal Examiner spoke with attorney Tim Johson and Nelson Mendes. Watch the video below.

However, Smelser repeatedly ruled against that presentation request, as well as a request from the property’s former owner Susan Dujack, an attorney, to speak on Mendes’s behalf. Dujack told us Mendes bought the property from her in April 2017.

“The public hearing was closed at the last meeting,” Smelser informed Dujack.

“I’m not the public,” Dujack replied, later adding to this reporter that neither was Mendes’s attorney, whose presentation was apparently shut down on the same point of an already closed public hearing.

“I think we have enough information to proceed,” Smelser stated.

However, at times she appeared confused as to which stance Petty was now presenting to her board.

“There are still FEMA flood requirements I don’t see fulfilled here,” Smelser said at one point, adding to County Zoning Administrator Petty, “Are you saying we were wrong in our first assessment?”

But before this writer confuses you or himself anymore, we present this Royal Examiner video of the entire 25-minute performance whose ending no one seemed really satisfied with; as well as our post-meeting interview with Nelson Mendes and his attorney Tim Johnson in reaction to what happened and where they feel they now stand with the County on permitting – because as Smelser observes at one point, the BZA ruling favoring the Mendes appeal of the planning department’s zoning administrator does not compel other County departments such as building, not to make their own rulings regarding codes they may believe applicable to their departmental authority:

After the BZA meeting, Royal Examiner reporter Roger Bianchini spoke with Nelson Mendes and his attorney Tim Johnson: