Can rural businesses, neighbors get along?

Dave Dahlin's place doesn't have the charm of some of the emerald-green horse pastures in May Valley.

His cluster of old RVs and the metal canopy beneath which he repairs other people's RVs aren't the stuff of Sunday afternoon drives in the country.

But one thing Dahlin's property does do: It allows a blind man with a history of health problems to earn a living on his own land.

He says his repair business and the artificial-landscape shop in his barn are exactly the kinds of home industries King County should be encouraging.

"All I want to do is make a living in my home," Dahlin says. "All I'm trying to do is be quiet, not disturb the neighbors."

County code-enforcement officers have a different idea. They say Dahlin is breaking the rules, and that the businesses should shut down or comply with zoning that limits the size of home businesses.

Yet, even while Dahlin faces a possible shutdown, County Executive Ron Sims and the County Council are considering whether to ease restrictions on cottage industries in order to foster rural commerce and reduce commuting.

Out in the country, residents are divided, a split that mirrors the changing character of an area where longtimers are now outnumbered by wealthier newcomers who have moved from the cities in search of peace and quiet.

Some fear that more permissive zoning would ruin the character of rural areas by allowing stores and industrial storage yards to proliferate along the highways and byways.

The council's growth-management committee recently called for zoning that would increase the maximum size of outdoor storage areas; eliminate requirements for landscaping around storage and parking; raise from one to three the number of nonresident employees allowed in a home business; permit more truck parking; and allow sales to customers without appointment.

The possible changes alarm Ken Konigsmark, a Preston resident who co-founded Rural Majority partly to fight what he sees as overdevelopment.

He wants rules relaxed somewhat for small home businesses, but says "giant loopholes" in the proposed zoning changes would allow inappropriately large nurseries, breweries and farm-products stores and would eliminate permit review for many other businesses.

"What we're doing is turning the rural residential area into the rural retail area, potentially, and that's not what growth management allows," Konigsmark says.

The county's growth-management policies call for a healthy rural economy that includes forestry, agriculture and home businesses.

But those policies are being undermined by current zoning that drives many traditional businesses off the land, says Preston resident Paul Carkeek, a land-use consultant who is pushing for more permissive zoning.

Too many newcomers want the countryside to be as neat and tidy as the suburbs, Carkeek says.

Some have moved from the city into new subdivisions next to farms in the Snoqualmie Valley and Enumclaw Plateau — and then complained to the county about the smell of cow manure.

Others have complained about home industries like Andy Herndon's earth-moving and septic-system businesses in Preston, Michael and Pat Haukenberry's mobile crane company east of Auburn, and William Bridges' saw-sharpening shop outside North Bend.

The Haukenberrys ended up moving their operation to Auburn. Herndon and Bridges managed to stay on their land.

"Part of the equation that's working here, I think, is social prejudice," Carkeek says. "They have the idea that teeth are optional out here and we're all barefoot and goofy and hang around the still all day."

If the county doesn't change course, he says, "The only business we're going to allow is one lady sitting on a porch with a butter churn — dressed in period, of course."

Some home-business operators have become so fearful of county code enforcers, says Dick Bonewits, chairman of the Greater Maple Valley Unincorporated Area Council, that when he asked readers of the local weekly newspaper to relate their experiences, he didn't get a single response.

"Either because people have actually been affected by aggressive regulations, overregulation or have the perception of overregulation," Bonewits says, "the county will never know about those businesses that exist because the people are not going to tell them they exist."

Rural King County is changing, he says, with the influx of wealthier people, like one of his neighbors whose five acres and new home are valued at $3.4 million. He sees a "culture clash" between many newcomers and old-timers who weld, dig wells, fix farm equipment, build homes and truck hay.

Sims' Office of Business Relations and Economic Development (BRED) is developing a long-term "rural economic strategy" aimed at helping residents earn an income where they live, through forestry, agriculture, "home occupations" and "home industries."

BRED is also preparing a recommendation to the County Council on how far the county should go in relaxing regulations on home businesses.

Julia Larson, coordinator of Sims' rural strategy, says she's heard plenty of "almost horror stories" about county enforcement actions. "OK, what can we do to address it?" she asks. "In some cases, the people had expanded beyond a true home-based business and had 11 employees. They probably needed to move to a business area. In other cases there may have been a valid reason why the codes needed to be addressed."

The county Department of Development and Environmental Services reports that at most, 114 of 3,600 land-use complaints received between January 2004 and May 2006 involved home businesses.

Both of the businesses on Dave Dahlin's May Valley property — his own recreational-vehicle repair business and a renter's artificial-landscape shop in his barn — are in violation of code, officials say.

The metal canopy under which he works on RVs was put up without a permit in the Highway 900 right of way, they say. The landscaping shop is illegal, they say, because Dahlin isn't involved in the business, it lacks a permit and its office — in a trailer — is too close to a wetland.

Dahlin, a former Illinois state police officer who was blinded in a 1996 motorcycle accident, says he bought his two-and-a-half acres in 1999 and later rented the barn to Natural Creations landscaping only after two county officials gave him their verbal blessings.

Those two officials, Mark Carey and Greg Borba, both of whom have left county government, say they don't remember details of their conversations with Dahlin, but Borba recalls the legality of the businesses as "real borderline."

Dahlin views the businesses as compatible with a neighborhood where residents have run home businesses since nearby Coalfield was a mining town. His neighbors operate furniture and antique shops, a feed store, a construction business, dog kennels and a tree service.

"I'm not trying to be illegal," Dahlin says. "I'm not trying to be defiant. All I'm trying to do is survive."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com