RV park challenges city’s J.B. Wells operation

A Gonzales-area RV park owner is fed up with the black eye he says J.B. Wells Park has given the community, and is demanding the city shut down its RV park operation or face legal action.

Robert Weathers of Hill-Top RV Park, 2959 state Highway 97 West near Cost, charges that the city of Gonzales is in direct competition with RV parks in Gonzales County, and that the city is ill equipped to properly manage such an operation.

“The city of Gonzales is operating a commercial for-profit business in competition with local RV parks in direct violation of state and federal anti-trust and commerce law,” Weathers contends.

“The makeshift RV Park does not comply with any established standards for health and safety to protect the occupants. No on-site supervision and lack of maintenance has given the J.B. Wells Park a third-world-country appearance in the area they allow people to live in,” he charges.

Weathers says the city’s operation of an RV park is a public nuisance. He delivered a cease and desist demand to City Hall on Sept. 27, and has given the city 10 days to comply. He says if the city does not meet the deadline, he will apply for an injunction and will also seek monetary relief.

In his filings with the city, Weathers stipulated that he wants the city to “return [J.B. Wells Park] to the intended use as a recreational-only facility.”

“Dogs tied to trailers and tangled among trash piled around them, old mattresses, discarded chairs, beer cans and bottles piled up, liquor bottles, beer bottles and beer cans thrown in four-foot-tall weeds saturated with trash, are all common sites at this city-run facility,” Weathers claims. “With Gonzales’ recent scramble to hire code-enforcement officers, it’s ironic how a municipality can issue citations to citizens when it cannot comply with it’s own ordinances at city-owned and operated properties.”

Weathers says the J.B. Wells facility has seen its share of both violent and non-violent crimes since the number of residents has increased at the RV park.

“Crime is not exclusive to the facility, but certainly more common as compared to other RV parks that provide professional oversight with rule enforcement and regular security patrols,” he says.

Weathers, who says his fight is backed by other local RV parks, claims that the city’s use of J.B. Wells Park for long-term RV usage comes with an unfair advantage that private businesses cannot overcome.

“Private business has a major disadvantage when it is forced to compete with a municipality that skirts the rules and uses an endless supply of taxpayer money to choke the life out of a local business,” Weathers charges. “RV parks can struggle to get by as they incur expensive overhead to run a proper facility subject to regular inspections and code enforcement, [especially] when they are in competition with a city-run facility that can give RV space rental away if it is so inclined with little or no oversight.”

Weathers contends that the city is ignoring stipulations put in place when it became a steward of the parkland more than 50 years ago.

“When J.B. Wells Jr. set aside land for a park, he stated expectations as to how it should be maintained, with stipulations in his will executed in 1961,” he says. “The city of Gonzales, as recipient of this land, agreed to comply by accepting and developing J.B. Wells Park for public use. According to sources, the city of Gonzales has taken extreme liberties in assuming it is appropriate to utilize the J.B. Wells Park facility as it sees fit, without regard for contractual obligations and the law. Operating a commercial RV Park without being subject to the same standards, including the application and inspection processes, while requiring private business to meet these standards, is hypocritical.”

City manager Allen Barnes deferred all questions regarding the threatened litigation to city attorney Jackie Williamson.

Williamson was out of town when the letter from Weathers was delivered to Barnes on Sept. 27, and says she obtained a copy of the actual letter on Oct. 1.

She confirmed that, succinctly stated, “he’s wanting us to close down.”

“It was my call, but I decided to turn it over to TML [Texas Municipal League], to legal, and then I’m going to let them take care of it,” Williamson says. “They’ll review it, they’ll get back with me, and then I’ll know more.

“TML will do legal research on his allegations and any law he’s alleging we are violating, and they will render an opinion. We’ll probably know something in a couple of weeks,” Williamson says.

TML was formed in 1913 “to serve the needs and advocate the interests of its members.” Membership in TML is voluntary, and more than 1,100 cities currently hold membership.