photo by: Chris Conde

The Douglas County Courthouse is pictured in September 2018.

After Douglas County officials informed a rural resident that he was violating zoning and codes regulations by using his property for truck storage, the resident has applied for a conditional use permit to continue doing so.

The Douglas County Commission on Wednesday will consider approving a conditional use permit for the truck storage to be operated at 1935 and 1937 East 950 Road, north of Lawrence. Holtkamp Holdings LLC, a company owned by Dallien Holtkamp, is listed as the applicant for the permit.

According to the application, Holtkamp realized that his current storage on the property is violating county zoning rules after the county informed him in June 2019. He applied for the conditional use permit to be in compliance with those rules, and the county allowed the use to continue during the application process.

The property is about 38.5 acres, mostly made up of grassland and woodland. About eight acres of the land, which houses several agricultural buildings, is used for storage.

Holtkamp currently leases the property to his lawn care and landscaping business Turformance Lawn Services LLC, which stores eight company trucks of various sizes on the site. Additional landscape-related equipment is stored in the buildings on the property.

Holtkamp indicated that he expected the storage use to increase to 15 trucks and five trailers with the permit, according to the application. The Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission recommended the permit for approval with various conditions attached, such as prohibiting retail and wholesale business and only allowing maintenance work on the trucks that are stored there.

In other business, the commissioners will hear an update on the development of a behavioral health crisis center.

The proposed 14-bed center is slated to be built as part of the Treatment and Recovery Campus of Douglas County. The housing portion of the campus is currently under construction at the 1000 block of West Second Street.

The update will be heard during a work session, meaning the commissioners will not take any action on the matter.

The County Commission will meet at 4 and 5:30 p.m. for its work session and regular meeting, respectively, Wednesday at the county courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. Full agendas are available online at douglascountyks.org.