WASHINGTON — The Washington County Board of Supervisors approved a developmental review, inspection, and code enforcement agreement between the City of Riverside and Washington County for a Blackjack Beach RV & Water Resort project.
Present at the meeting was Cole Smith, Riverside City Administrator, and he wanted to bring the supervisors up to date with this project, located across Highway 22 from the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort.
“We have a potential development opportunity to bring in a RV campground and water park across from the casino,” said Smith to the supervisors. “It's currently in the county, would need to be annexed, and it would be 100% voluntary annexation, one owner. So, it should be a very easy process there, but since the property is in the county, you guys technically would have authority over the property.”
The project is looking to move forward with construction but needs to have building inspection services review the site plan and code enforcement throughout the project prior to annexation. Annexation is expected to take about six months.
“We are working on a pre-annexation agreement and are expecting an annexation application in the next couple of weeks, so that would kick off our process,” said Smith. “And like I said, that's typically about a four to six month process. This being 100% voluntary sole owner, there's only one property owner involved in it. Should be fairly seamless and smooth.”
This proposed project will have more than 150 RV parking spots and a water park of more than 70,000 square feet with water slides, a lazy river and pools, along with a sandy beach.
Washington County Outreach name change
The supervisor approved a change to a county department name from Washington County Outreach to Washington County Probation Outreach. This change was suggested by Outreach Director Joseph Williams who wanted to clear any confusion with what services the department offers.
“This is more for the community,” said Williams. “Since I've started, I get community members calling me, requesting help with different things, rent, food, things like that. What this is for, is to be a more transparent community … this is more just so we're calling it what it is. It's a county probation.”
Highway grant resolution
A resolution for a competitive highway bridge program (CHBP) grant application and letter of support was supervisor approved.
Washington County Engineer Jacob Thorius explained this grant is to obtain funds to replace Vine Avenue Bridge near Ainsworth which is currently load-constricted and in poor condition. The grant is due by July 27.
A 2026 CHBP 28E agreement was also approved by the supervisor.
“This is the actual 2080 agreement,” said Thorius. “This has been standard language used with the DOT and the other local agencies that have been involved in grant applications like this the last several years, saying that ultimately we're responsible for our project and our project only, not for the other projects.”
28E agreement with Wellman
The supervisors approved another 28E agreement between Washington County and Wellman for the paving of a portion of Ginkgo Avenue (9th Avenue).
The county is doing an overlay on Ginkgo avenue next year and there is a small portion between the county city limits line and the bridge that was just replaced a year ago, and the city is wanting to piggyback on the project to improve that part of the road as well.
“This is just a formal agreement that we've used in the past for other entities doing this, where we're doing the inspection, managing the project on behalf of the city,” said Thorius.