Court order could close trailer park.

Byline: BILL BISHOP The Register-Guard

A judge is preparing to close Saginaw Park, the run-down trailer park north of Cottage Grove where manager Kent Olsen has amassed tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid fines for disregarding Lane County building and sanitation rules that he claims are not constitutional.

Lane County Circuit Court Judge Karsten Rasmussen, who presided in a January trial on the issues, last week instructed the county to prepare an order that will close the park by April 30 and empower county officials to demolish nonpermitted buildings and remove debris to eliminate public nuisances on the 14-acre property.

The ruling finds that Olsen refuses to follow laws that are being reasonably enforced by the county and that his violations create "irreparable injury to the public."

Chief among the county's complaints has been the condition of a septic sewer system serving the 42-space park where an estimated 100 people live.

Rasmussen's proposed order will allow the county to place a lien against the property to recover the cost of the cleanup, including legal fees, according to court records. Rasmussen did not indicate when he might sign the order.

"I'm going to appeal," Olsen said Friday. "I've never seen so much violation of property and constitutional rights in my life."

It is not clear whether an appeal might stop enforcement action pending a higher court's review. Olsen, 66, lost twice in court when he argued that the county's rules violate constitutional rights. He said he doesn't trust lawyers and represents himself in court because lawyers are members of the state bar association and "work for the court."

Olsen also argued that state laws can't be applied to his property because the land grant on the property predates the state's admission to the Union.

The judge's proposed ruling describes Olsen's legal defense as not reasonable because it relies solely on Olsen's belief that Oregon's laws and rules don't apply to his property.

John Cole, Lane County's director of land management, said his staff has not yet planned how to implement Rasmussen's order but will work with housing groups to help low-income Saginaw residents find other shelter when the park is closed.

"It will have to become a priority of mine once the judge signs the order," he said. "The first step will be getting notice to people who live there."

Over the past five years, Cole said, Olsen has clearly established his philosophical opposition to land use rules. Nevertheless, Cole said the rules exist for good reasons and have been legally upheld.

"He tries to pretend he is not a business. But he is," Cole said. "There is a certain minimum threshold. It's not permissible for a person to let their property become a junkyard, to allow their subsurface sanitation system to fall apart, to build without permits and not cooperate when we try to get him to follow the law."

Cole said Olsen refuses to acknowledge that his park is not simply a piece of rural property where a private owner is storing personal possessions that might be deemed junk.

He said land use laws are much less stringent for private land than for commercial property such as Olsen's, where substandard structures and malfunctioning septic systems may endanger lives and pose health hazards.

Even when Olsen has worked on the park's septic system, he has refused to comply with inspection requirements.

Without inspection, county officials can't determine if it meets health standards, Cole said.

"This is a commercial piece of property," Cole said. "We don't know what he is doing out there."

CAPTION(S):

THOMAS BOYD / The Register-Guard Kent Olsen holds legal papers involving a lawsuit Lane County brought against him for health and building violations at his trailer park in this file photo.