Gardner Reconsidering Seasonal RV Park

The location of the proposed Goetz RV Park is in the 3400 block of County CC in the Town of Gardner, also known as Little Sturgeon.

Having received a more detailed plan for a proposed seasonal RV park, the Gardner Plan Commission will reconsider the proposal during its April 10 meeting.

The location of the operation is in the 3400 block of County CC, where a mobile-home park used to be located. The Gardner Town Board, which received an eight-page operating plan for the proposed Goetz RV Park, decided March 8 to refer the matter to the plan commission for review.

“We’ll do due diligence,” said commission chair Mark Lentz. 

He said the town is notifying neighbors of the property about the project, sending them letters with a copy of the plan submitted by the Goetz family, which operates a resort in the town.

Lentz said the latest plan is more detailed than the one the Goetz family had previously submitted, and which the commission recommended denying last year. 

When neighbors of the proposed RV park filled the town hall last summer to voice concerns to the commission about the project, they noted things such as complaints that the Door County Sheriff’s Office had responded to when the site was run as a mobile-home park.

The operating plan states that the Goetz Resort is committed to avoiding a repeat of those past issues.

“Goetz Resort acknowledges that this portion of the property had a troubled history, but Goetz Resort will effectively [monitor] the RV park and take the action necessary to prevent [similar] issues from plaguing the RV park,” the operating plan states.

As proposed, the park will include 18 slabs with electric, water and sewer hookups, with the possibility of installing four additional slabs later. To upgrade the site as an RV park, the plan also calls for planting a buffer of trees between the park and County CC to preserve the character of the area, updating the site’s water infrastructure with spigot attachments to connect with RVs and anti-syphon devices attached to each spigot, and converting each electric pedestal to accept a 30- or 50-amp RV plug.

The plan calls for the RV park to operate April 15 – Oct. 15 each year, but it also states that the operating season may be extended or shortened because of atypically warm or cold weather.

Customers of the RV park would be able to rent slabs on a daily, weekly, monthly or seasonal basis under the plan, and seasonal renters would be allowed to store their RVs on the property throughout the winter “so long as they have committed to renewing their seasonal rental for the following year.” RVs stored at the park during the winter months would not be allowed to be occupied under the plan.

The plan also lists a series of rules, such as limiting each site to one RV and two vehicles, not allowing fireworks, and not permitting guests of RV park customers to arrive prior to 8 am or stay after 10 pm.