Yes, Natrona County has a new revised regulation for collector cars.
Not everyone likes it.
And some say maybe it can be made better.
Regardless, the county commission ended a nearly year-long dispute Tuesday when it created a land use category for collector cars, which will require property owners in certain zoning districts to obtain conditional use permits.
The meeting invoked some of the acrimony expressed last fall, when hundreds of people protested the "Better Homes and Gardens Gestapo," according to one critic, speaking of officials enforcing property codes, especially about collector cars.
Tuesday, one participant was ejected for dropping the H-bomb, and a letter from a former county commissioner bitterly criticized her former colleagues.
The text amendment before the commission defined collector cars as inoperable or unlicensed cars stored and maintained for preservation and allowed light-duty trucks. Besides obtaining conditional use permits, the amendment tied the permit to the permit holder and not the land, limited county code enforcement visits to twice a year, and required residents to maintain their lots.
Commission Chairman Ed Opella said that without changing the current zoning resolution, all unlicensed and inoperable vehicles would be regarded as junk cars, and subject to removal.
But Commissioner Matt Keating found a way to satisfy some of the strongest criticisms of the amendment.
The amendment, formally recommended by the county's Planning and Zoning Commission on July 13, stated conditional use permits could be obtained for collections of cars and light trucks with a payload capacity of up to 1.5 tons.
But it still prohibited two-ton pickups, fire trucks, semitrailers, buses and other large vehicles that are in some county residents' collections.
Several collectors asked why the amendment included that restriction.
Opella responded that the car collector category could not be open-ended. "At some point we have to make a cutoff, a ton-and-a-half," he said.
He later said, "Sorry, we can't make everybody happy."
That could be changed, collector Jerry Knight said. "My suggestion is to change it to any inoperable or unlicensed truck or any specialty vehicle, which would be over the ton-and-a-half limit."
Specialty vehicles could be fire trucks or wreckers, Knight said. "It's not necessarily a vehicle that's a car or truck."
But Opella countered that would open the collector concept to semitrailers and other large vehicles.
Amendment critic and collector Dana Jones also asked about the payload restriction.
Jone served on the original committee of three car collectors and three residents wanting stricter enforcement, he said.
He unsuccessfully pushed for an increase in payload capacity, he said. "Those of us in opposition were heard very little."
After the public hearing, Keating offered an amendment similar to Knight's suggestion to remove the 1.5-ton payload restriction.
After some wordsmithing, the amendment expanded the collector category to any inoperable, unlicensed vehicle - including parts vehicles -- which was licensed previously for highway use.
Knight liked it, he told the commissioners. "I think this would solve the problem."
Commissioner Bill McDowell didn't like it, saying it could open the door for garbage, dump and concrete trucks.
The other commissioners outvoted McDowell.
When it was done, they all voted for the change to the zoning resolution.
The meeting wasn't without some drama.
Cecil Gilbert of Bison Wrecking Service piped up at one point saying, "sounds like Adolf Hitler to me."
After a couple more similar comments, Opella asked a sheriff's deputy to eject Gilbert.
And former county Commissioner Barb Peryam wrote a letter castigating the current commission, which was read by amendment opponent Judy Jones.
The amendment gives the commissioners power to eventually destroy car collections that have been in the county for decades, Jones read from Peryam's letter.
"'Publicly, you consider the publicly correct answer, privately you rant and rave about getting back at some citizens,'" according to the letter.
"'I'm ashamed of you as commissioners for allowing what could have been a worthwhile amendment to descend to this level,'" Peryam wrote. "'There's an old saying that "boys will be boys," but I prefer men to be men.'"
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