BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A couple who manufacture and rent tiny homes on wheels as short-term rentals in the Providence area came to the April 7 Union County Commission meeting with cookies, endorsements from a YouTube channel and a Gainesville magazine, and glowing reviews about their “glamping cabin getaways.”
Govinda Carol and Krsna Balynas also pitched their manufacturing and rental businesses, which they said grossed $1.6 million in revenues, as a driver of economic development in Union County and said they hoped county commissioners would work with them to find a way to keep the operation going while conforming it to county land use laws.
Instead, the two business owners got a grilling from commissioners, particularly Channing Dobbs and Donna Jackson.
During their March 17 meeting, commissioners discussed an alleged illegal campground operated by Carol and Balynas off County Road 241 on agriculturally zoned property.
According to a complaint, the couple rented tiny homes through Airbnb to out-of-town guests. According to Balynas, after the March 17 meeting, Commissioner Mac Johns visited the site and recommended that the pair address the complaints directly to commissioners.
Carol and Balynas tried to persuade commissioners of the benefits their operation brought to Providence and Union County, highlighting one review in which guests said they patronized Pop Pop’s Pizza Box in Providence.
Came to Union after problems in Alachua
However, Dobbs and Jackson quickly zeroed in on the couple’s land use violations and suggested through their questioning that after the City of Alachua chased the pair away for land use violations in that municipality, the couple tried to set up their manufacturing operation in Union County under the radar.
“I think this is kind of a—we’re in a situation of beg forgiveness instead of ask permission type thing,” Dobbs told the pair. “I commend you for what you’re doing. Really, I do. I think it’s great. But I think the proper channels have to be (adhered to).”
“You’re supposed to abide by the county land development regulations,” added Jackson. “Did you check into that before you started a business?”
Balynas: “No. So this grew very organically. It grew a lot faster than we had the ability to keep up.”
Jackson: “Have you ever been cited at another county for a land development regulation or a failure to provide adequate permitting for your business?”
Balynas: “No. Alachua City had tried to close us down, but they didn’t have any proper violations against us, which we just ended a two-year lawsuit with them over that because they allowed us to maintain with verbal permission for three years and then they changed their minds. We weren’t actually violating any codes against their regulations.”
Through their questioning, commissioners also uncovered that after obtaining septic permits from the Department of Health for two homes, the couple brought in multiple tiny houses and hooked the structures up to the two septic systems approved for two residences. They did the same with the electrical hookup, supplying power to several vacation cottages from the boxes of the two houses on the property.
The pair claimed that the Department of Health said the setup created no immediate public health threat, but County Attorney Russell Wade said the county received a letter from the state health agency outlining the couple’s violations.
‘Did you just think that you could come to Union County and get away with this?’
Balynas told commissioners that the couple wanted to comply with county codes.
“But you don’t feel like you should have met that standard before you were in violation?” asked Jackson. “You’ve had just come out of Alachua County where you’ve spent two years in a lawsuit, but yet you’ve come to Union County, and you start engaging in activities that you should have known (were not) appropriate. Did you just think that you could come to Union County and get away with this?”
“We grew our business from nothing,” replied Balynas, “and we made choices that we had to make in order to continue growing our business, to give opportunities to our family that we didn’t have access to. And so, at the time, when we started our business, it wasn’t an option for us. We didn’t have the resources to go through all of the loops and the jumps to establish…”
Jackson cut the speaker off.
“One point five million dollars later, I wouldn’t think resources would be a problem,” the commissioner interjected.
“That’s revenue, and that’s not net profit,” countered Balynas. “That’s not how we’ve been functioning for five years. We started out building one tiny house in our backyard on nights and weekends, and it grew organically from there. And we’ve just been trying to keep up with managing a very large business that grew bigger than we were able to keep up with. And so that’s why we’re here today because we want to do it right, and we want to make sure that everything— the t’s are crossed, and i’s are dotted and that we can stay in your county because we believe that it’s a beautiful offering to this county.”
“Those are things that are done through proper channels that are permitted through the appropriate departments and come before this board for approval,” stated Jackson, “not things that are done illegally.”
Amazing, but illegal
Johns capsulated the situation from his perspective.
They’re common-sense folks,” he said of Carol and Balynas. “They know they’re doing wrong. I know they’re doing wrong. None of that stuff is legal. There are two things going on. There’s a campground, basically, and there’s a manufacturing assembly plan out there for tiny homes. None of it’s permitted. None of it’s legal. I think y’all know that, but we’re not here to decide, and we’re not here to really chastise you or penalize you or blame you. The bottom line is it’s all out in the open now, so we can’t hide from it either.”
Johns added that he thought the tiny house campsites were commendable.
“I’m telling you, they’re nice,” he said. “They’re not septic pipes running out on the ground with chickens eating up sewage. It is really amazing what you’ve done out there, but it is illegal.”
Commissioners told the couple that bringing their operation into compliance would be difficult.
Dobbs said he hoped the pair would find an appropriate place in Union County to operate.
“If y’all can get in the right spot or if you can, if it’s possible for you to rezone this, I want you to build a thousand of them,” he said. “Because I think, just like everyone else here, we need more business growth, but we have to do it the right way.”
