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A recently constructed duplex in the city of Washington remains unoccupied as the developers deal with a zoning issue that was recently brought to the county conservation board.

The duplex located at 503 West 5th Street was found to not meet the city’s zoning requirements of having at least 5,000 square feet for each unit. One solution to this issue was for the conservation board to release or sell their easement to the developer Matt Lepic, as the property sits north of the Kewash Nature Trail. After lengthy discussion at their most recent meeting Conservation Executive Director Zach Rozmus says the board voted to deny an easement request, “One of the things that we wanted to make sure as a conservation board is that we one: maintain a good working relationship with the City of Washington, and also two: what precedent do we set moving forward? Because we do possess a lot of easements along the Kewash Trail with it being 14 miles long, that’s a lot of neighbors associated with the trail. So we definitely don’t want to open the box where we’re having individuals come out of the woodwork and approach us constantly about, ‘Hey, can we purchase this easement?’”

Washington City Administrator Brent Hinson says there may have been some confusion between the duplex contractor and the city zoning administrator that led to this issue, “It didn’t happen in as orderly and organized fashion as we would have liked to see. I’m not going to put the blame on really anybody in particular.”

Hinson says that Lepic has applied for a variance from the city board of adjustment to review the square footage issue as well as a rear setback issue on the western unit. They’re expected to meet later this month. Lepic was unavailable to return a request for comment at this time.