County OKs variance to allow two properties to share one wastewater system

Riley County commissioners voted Dec. 18 to grant a variance allowing two properties to connect to a single wastewater disposal system.

Jake Hansen, Riley County counselor, told the commission that the planning and hearing‑officer records recommended approval of the request from Carson and Shelby Lang. Hansen summarized the rule at issue as a sanitary‑code limit that normally prevents more than two properties from sharing one wastewater disposal system and said the requested variance reflected factors laid out in the hearing record.

Hansen said the approved variance will be recorded with the register of deeds and is conditional: it "runs with the property" only while the parcel remains under single ownership. "If the property gets divided, parceled out ... that variance will extinguish," Hansen said, explaining the county’s method of protecting future owners and enforcing the limitation.

Commissioners asked whether the requested connections already were under construction; staff answered that the work on one dwelling had begun but that the approval is conditioned on the findings in the hearing record. A commissioner moved to adopt the hearing officer’s findings and grant the variance under Raleigh County sanitary code, Article 2, Section 3.5; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.

The commission’s action authorizes county staff to record the signed findings with the register of deeds and to treat the variance as conditional on continued singular ownership; any future owner seeking a similar arrangement would need to file a new variance request.

The variance approval closes the county’s administrative hearing on the application and imposes the recording and ownership conditions described by county counsel.