A Sapulpa business’s application for a Special Exception to allow a wedding venue and event center and a variance to allow gravel for parking and driveway made for a lengthy discussion at Tuesday evening’s Creek County Board of Adjustment meeting.
Local landscaper Dustin Lousch, his wife Brittany, and his father Jerry, own and operate The View, a 5,000 square foot indoor/outdoor event space on Lone Star Road.
Jerry has owned the property since 1994, when it was just raw land. Dustin and Brittany wanted to get married there because of the lush surroundings and spectacular view, and did so in 2015. In 2018, at the request of multiple people, they opened it to the public.
Not everyone is thrilled with the operation, however. Neighbor Shaun Rankin recently submitted a complaint to the County over noise and traffic emanating from the venue to his property 900 feet away, which prompted the need for the Louschs to submit the aforementioned applications, to bring them into compliance with County regulations.
Before hosting their first wedding, the Louschs say they did their due diligence and read and complied with all of the County’s regulations pertaining to wedding venues and event spaces. They have also made many efforts to appease disgruntled neighbors by planting numerous 10-foot tall evergreen trees to provide a sound barrier, by putting in door closures so the doors to the venue cannot be propped open, thereby eliminating noise, and by stipulating in their contract that outside music must stop no later than 10 p.m. and that all events must be finished by midnight. Dustin says Rankin gave him a week to put in the door closures and trees, and that those measures take longer to implement than that brief window of time.
Additionally, the Louschs say, they alone mow, weed eat, gravel, grade, and maintain the road to the property that several neighbors use and they have erected additional signage pointing guests the right way to help mitigate extra traffic and disturbance down neighbors’ driveways.
Furthermore, they argue, it is a seasonal business that picks up in spring and fall and drops off in summer and winter, events are almost exclusively on Friday and Saturday evenings from 6 to 10 p.m., they rarely reach their 200-guest capacity, the area where the ceremonies are held are on the opposite side of neighbors, Google Earth was not accurate at one time and would send guests to the wrong address, but that has been fixed, and finally, COVID exacerbated the problem because many couples opted to have outdoor receptions to accommodate social distancing. Normally, due to Oklahoma’s extreme summer and winter temperatures, wedding parties choose to keep the doors closed.
Dustin tells Sapulpa Times, “We had no idea that we needed to go through this process, or we would’ve done it the right way in the beginning, but this is all new to us.”
Rankin countered his neighbors’ explanations, asking, “Am I only supposed to enjoy my property after 10 p.m.?” and saying that his and other neighbors’ property values are adversely affected by the proximity of the venue. As to what the Louschs can do to remedy the problem? “Relocate it,” Rankin stated.
The BOA listened to Rankin and two other neighbors, both of whom cannot hear anything from the property but are concerned about additional traffic and their property values.
Board Member Mary Gannaway pointed out that Creek County does not have a noise ordinance, so there would be no way to enforce that complaint. And without some kind of property assessor or real estate expert attesting to the claim that property values are being lowered due to the business, there is no way to prove this. In fact, she said, most people’s property values have risen considerably recently.
Board Member Kelvin Misner noted that “a lot worse things could happen out in the County than a wedding venue” and said that as a Board they are tasked with balancing both sides of the issue.
Dustin told the Board, “We didn’t go into business to make anyone mad. We just wanted Sapulpa to be able to share the view. We just want to run our business and make the neighbors happy.”
Ultimately, the Board unanimously approved the application with the option to review the situation again in a year.
