Housing: Dunn County drops crew camp moratorium

Talk about it

MANNING — Dunn County will lift its crew camp moratorium June 1.

The Board of County Commissioners decided at its Wednesday meeting at the Dunn County Courthouse that it will also ask the planning and zoning committee to set parameters on the number of beds and locations if different from what is stated in the zoning ordinance.

The committee will return with its recommendations at the June 6 county commissioners meeting.

“We need a place for these people to stay,” said Commissioner Tim Steffan. “If there is no place for these people to stay, they’re going to stay in all of these other places, but I think we need restrictions on them. Zero tolerance.”

Over the past year, Dunn County commissioners approved construction of six crew camps. Camps housing more than 1,000 oil workers are already in operation in Killdeer and Manning.

Sandy Rohde, planning and zoning administrator, said she receives daily requests from oil workers who are looking for places to park their RVs for three months.

Not only will lifting the moratorium allow for oil workers to find housing easier, but Commissioner Donna Scott, who is also on the planning and zoning committee, said it would benefit emergency service workers.

“If an employer comes in and has 24 people or less that are working for him, then he can apply for just his people to stay there because law enforcement and ambulance services are saying that if the RVs are parked out there, they have to take care of them,” she said. “As far as the drinking and the partying that goes on out there, that is (emergency service workers) nightmare. That’s why we have taken the RV parks out to try and help emergency services and law enforcement. We’re not zoning people. We’re zoning what’s going on on the land.”

Scott, who is also on the planning and zoning committee, said it would be beneficial to get input from the planning and zoning.

“I’m only one planning member, but I do feel comfortable that this moratorium has been on until the end of the month,” she said. “We have Target Logistics is filling theirs up. I know Goliath is wanting to grow, but we really haven’t seen the growth that we thought there was going to be. I know there is growth coming, but I would feel comfortable talking with planning and zoning and getting recommendations.”

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