REGIONAL — In a contentious and long-standing dispute, St. Louis County may be taking Rough N It Campground owner Christine Wyrobek to court for operating the campground in violation of the county’s zoning ordinances.
The Board of Commissioners authorized the county attorney’s office to proceed during Tuesday’s meeting, at which Assistant County Attorney Nick Campanario explained the rationale for the action.
“For the past several years, we have a property owner (Wyrobek) who’s been renting out one or more campsites on her property. Given that the property is in a residential zoning district, and given that there are no zoning permits in place for the property, that’s just something you cannot do,” Campanario said. “For the past few years, we’ve been doing everything that we can think of to try to bring this property into compliance. We’ve done the things that we usually do. We’ve even done things that we don’t usually do, all to no avail. And so at this point, we feel like we have no choice but to initiate court action to try to get a court order to stop this property owner from using the property in violation of the zoning ordinance.”
The dispute began in early 2023 when Wyrobek applied for a zoning variance and conditional use permit for three water-accessible only parcels on Black Bay and two lakeshore properties on Raps Road for a nonprofit campground that would be open to the public but provide free camping to military veterans. Beatty Township residents opposed the rezoning, wishing to maintain the residential zoning of the area. The Planning and Zoning Commission rejected the variance request, saying that it would constitute “spot zoning,” a practice not allowable under state law.
However, Wyrobek proceeded with developing campsites and began advertising them as available for use in late summer 2023.
Wyrobek took the county to court, alleging procedural errors that would invalidate the commission’s decision and grant the variance she sought. Meanwhile, the county acknowledged that the Planning and Zoning Commission could only recommend actions to the Board of Commissioners for them to act on. The board voted to reject Wyrobek’s request, although she had already withdrawn her applications. By mutual agreement, the lawsuit was dismissed.
However, Wyrobek claimed that the campsites were permissible under residential zoning, as they had been developed as individual residential dwelling sites, a classification she said allowed for temporary or moveable sites.
Throughout the course of the dispute, the Timberjay and others have requested information from the Planning and Zoning Department about the status of the situation, but citing that it was an “ongoing investigation,” those requests were deniend. Tuesday’s statements by Campanario were the first clear-cut indication that the county clearly disagrees with Wyrobek’s interpretation.
Notified last week that the proposed civil action would be on Tuesday’s board agenda, Wyrobek’s attorney, Chris Heinze, of Libby Law Office in St. Paul, contacted Campanario and asked him to read a letter to the board.
“I remain hopeful that my client and the county can reach resolution regarding her parcels short of litigation,” Heinze wrote. “I always advise my clients to reach settlement whenever possible, to avoid the time and resources that litigation require. After a short initial discussion with (Campanario), I’m hopeful that the parties can reach resolution and in relatively short order.”
After reading the letter, Campanario offered his thoughts.
“I commend the sentiment here,” he said. “I will tell you that if this is going to come to fruition, Mr. Heinze’s client is going to have to exhibit a change of tune, but we will see if that’s forthcoming. For now, we still would like to pursue authorization to bring this court action.”
The board, without discussion, unanimously voted to move forward with the action.
The Timberjay attempted to contact Wyrobek by email but did not receive a response prior to press time.