Building an RV park from scratch: We have a rough draft of our park!

By Machelle James

Such excitement in the air in the last few weeks! Not only did we meet with the engineers, we also had our kitchen delivered and partially installed!

We drove into Snowflake to meet with our engineer, Will, last Friday. The sky opened up and we drove through much-needed rain. The excitement was building up for both of us. How many full hookup spots can we have? How many partial hookups, how many storage spots?

Well, after our hours-long meeting, we came up a plan. So far, we can have 27 full hookup, pull-through spots. We can have 25 partial hookup spots, and 25 spots for RV or boat storage. We are going to have one pay-as-you-use public shower but no washer and dryer facilities at the beginning. Yes, we will have more showers and laundry for phase two, just not immediately.

We will have a large ramada area for our cook-offs, events and adult beverage gathering area. We will have one side for recreation (playground, picnic tables, bocce ball, horseshoes) and the opposite side of the road will have a dog run area. Our check-in area and store will be across from our home for easy access.

We were told we cannot have a black tank dump station at this time due to the ADEQ’s (Arizona Department of Environmental Quality) requirements of water usage. So that will happen in phase two as well.

We have to start small and grow our park as we get revenue from it.

We drew out the roads and now we know how the flow of the park will go. We will have street names for our campers to follow and I am sure we will name them after our kids or our grandbabies! Jenna Lane, Max Drive, Aurora Road – something along those lines.

I do know after we get the proposed land use on paper, we have to submit it to Planning and Zoning for review. We also will have a town hall-type meeting with the neighbors to voice their concerns. I will keep you updated on that as most people here are supportive but, of course, some people don’t like change. Change can be scary and uncertain so we want to address those concerns as well.

I am hoping the engineered drawing will be done by the next article for me to share with you. I want you to see our vision on paper while you follow us on our journey!

Thank you for your support and as always, see you in the trees! And please leave a comment.

Read previous articles here.

Machelle James and her husband, AJ, are building, from the ground up, a 15-acre RV park in Heber-Overgaard, Arizona, in the beautiful White Mountains 140 miles from Phoenix. Follow them on Facebook @ AJ’s Getaway RV Park or on Instagram at ajsgetawayrvpark.

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