About 10 neighbors blasted Thurston County Commissioners on Tuesday, raising objections about a wedding venue site near Tenino called Hillside Farms, which they say is operating well beyond the scope of what is allowed by the county for a rural residential area.
Early this summer, conversation about a wedding venue in south Thurston County was not as pretty as its rural setting.
Now, the county and Hillside Farms have figured out a way forward — but it did require some legal pressure.
In June, neighbors who lived near Hillside Farms at 1120 143rd Ave. near Tenino brought their concerns to Thurston County Commissioners and delivered an earful, alleging the business was noisy and operating beyond the scope of what the county allowed in a rural residential area.
“Why are they being allowed to flagrantly violate the regulations that you have worked on?” Sherry Hill asked the commissioners.
“Obviously we need to get to the bottom of what’s happening there,” Commissioner Gary Edwards said after hearing from about 10 neighbors, including Hill.
Paul Wendler, co-owner of the business through Picasso Acquisitions LLC, did not attend the meeting that day, but he later defended his operation, saying he was working with the county and did not set out to do anything illegal.
In July, the county filed a lawsuit against the business and later won a temporary restraining order prohibiting the business “from holding or conducting any weddings, retreats or other public, private, or community events without permits and approvals required by the county zoning code, fire code, building code and sanitary code.”
Thurston County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Travis Burns worked on the case.
“The county felt it had exhausted its internal remedies to get compliance,” said Burns about the decision to file suit.
Then this month, the county, Wendler, plus Picasso Acquisitions LLC, signed an agreement that outlines the steps Hillside Farms must take and complete before June 1, 2019 for the county to drop its legal action.
That includes procuring zoning, building, fire and sanitary code permits.
“Should the defendants comply with all of the terms of this agreement, this matter shall be dismissed without prejudice on or before June 1, 2019,” the agreement reads.
Asked whether Wendler and Picasso have since taken steps toward compliance, attorney Burns said they have.
“They are in conversations with community planning,” Burns said.
Joshua Cummings, the county’s community planning and economic development director, put a finer point on the matter, saying the county has continued to work with Wendler and Hillside Farms.
“At no point did we stop working with him, he just got ahead of the ball,” Cummings said. “And we never shut him down, we just never permitted him to do these things in the first place. We look forward to continuing to work with him.”
Meanwhile, Wendler said Thursday that he is working with the county, as he has been from the start.
The business is now closed, but once it’s in compliance and reopens, Wendler said it will be offering an additional service: Allowing the Tenino School District to use the building on site for fund-raising purposes.
