Twilight Zoning in Bellingham: In for the Long Term

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

In for the Long Term

From a reader earlier this week:

“To start, I would like to answer a couple of question raised within earlier comments. I have live in Bellingham since the 40's, so feel I have right to comment. Secondly, I don't care what color, age, gender you are. If you are violating the city code of 'no more then 3 non-blood related' (marriage not included) living within a single family resident, within a zoned R-1, Single Family Residential Neighborhood, you are in violation. Families chose to move into a single family residential area for obvious reasons. They want a safe, quiet neighborhood to live and raise their family. Who is going to purchase a home next to a rooming house where the tenants have no respect for the neighborhood or residents, care less what their rooming houses looks like, no respect for speed limits, generally a just let me live my life attitude. Knowing they will only be there a short period of time. What does this do to a neighborhood? Devalues other properties for one thing. Stress out the REAL families trying to live a normal life. The city of Bellingham offers multi use neighborhoods with apt, true boarding house, as the college offers Dorm rooms. Don't destroy a neighborhood for you own selfish needs and desires. We, the neighbors, are here long term, this is our home, your short term bed.”

My reaction:

I too believe that we should be able to move into a single family zoned neighborhood (like the ones that are mentioned in the neighborhood plans all the associations are working on at this moment) and find there single family homes and not rooming houses. Nor should we fear creation of a rooming house next door once we have bought a home.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: There just has to be more rights to protect homeowners. Shortly after I bought my first house at age 50 of saving & saving. The 5 bed room house next to me was a rental & a safe house for people crossing the border to hide out.
Sometimes more than 30 people @ a time. (I live in the middle of the US). After a year of little sleep & damage to my property the owner sold it to a real estate company that rents. This was worse if it can be..Drug dealers moved in & I was threatened that if I turned them in there would be nothing left of my home. I am this tiny little 50 year old woman. Several bounty hunters have come to my door looking for different ones living in there but with no sucess. Now there is a well known gang member bunch in there as well. I am scared! I work all day & sometimes when I come home I can't even get to my drive way. The noise is so loud at nights, my property is trashed. Family & friends won't even come over any more because of the "RENTERS". I tryed to sell it but potential buyers won't even get out & look @ my house when they see this bunch carousing around, or all the beer cans. The rest of the neighborhood around my house is nice, my other fellow home owners are just as afraid. The police say untill they do something physical to one of us there is nothing they can do. I called the realestate company that is renting it & they have told us that we don't have enough money to make them comply with any city regulations. We called the city & the city claims they do not have the time to verify facts. I have taken pictures & video & its as if that has no effect on getting some action. As far as the drugs & gangs go the attitude seems to be that this is considered normal daily life & to just live with it.
I can't sell it, I can't live in it, & I can't rent it & I have no where to go. So it would be nice to know what you are suspoto to do?? I will either end up murdered by this rental or I am getting to the point I would like to find a way to do away with them. 5 years of this my once nice property is destroyed, yard fences & all. I tryed to sue the real estate company for a new fence with my videos but the real estate compay said I had no way of really proving those were not friends of the tennants. So here we are....& I know I am not the only home owner that is living with this. I usto love to garden & paint but after 1 summer of harrasment while working in my yard about ended that. They are 10 feet from the north side of my house window & I have nighmares of when they come crashing through. Now they have a pit bull. Its just a matter of time any more, watch the news you may see me on it somtime, but I do not think I will be alive. Why is it hopeless??? Don't home owners deserve better???????????????; February 5, 2008 at 1:39 PM

The Rationale for Rental Licensing

There is the definitive experience of cities that have already adopted rental licensing and inspections in the face of exactly the same opposition as we saw in Bellingham over the last decade. Ultimately, each of these cities was proven correct in its resolve to move ahead to protect the safety and health of the renters. We already know that the city of Pasco, WA found that 15% of the units inspected under their program had serious life/safety issues. 10% had mold problems. A full 85% had problems of varying degrees. The city of Gresham, OR performed over 1600 inspections in 2009 and issued, as a result, over 4,000 citations. Lexington, KY performed inspections of units near the University of Kentucky and found that 50% had life/safety issues. Sacramento, CA began an inspection program during which one third of the units inspected had serious safety and health issues. The question why does anyone believe that the condition of rental housing here in Bellingham does not mirror that which is found in cities that have the statistics to show that time and time again the condition of rentals in our cities is problematic? All we have had to date from those who oppose licensing are broad statements by the landlords and their paladins that are completely and utterly unsubstantiated. The Zonemaven has searched in vain for the horror stories that these opponents of licensing and inspections have predicted. On the other hand, The Zonemaven did find over 100 cities that have licensing AND inspections without the catastrophic effect for the rental markets that the landlords would have you believe. (See this blog's sidebar at bottom left for list)

One Reason Illegal Rooming Houses Do Not Work

The limit for unrelated persons at a single family home rental is three residents. Leases are signed by three people who then invite additional renters to join them to lower per capita rental rates. The perverse effect is that rental rates tend to rise under these circumstances making it difficult for single families to rent single family homes. Some local rental agencies facilitate this practice.

"To say that a family is so equivalent to a ragtag collection of college roommates as to require identical treatment in zoning decisions defies the reality of the place of the family in American society, despite any changes that institution has undergone in recent years. Only the most cynical among us would say that the American family has devolved to the point of no greater importance or consideration in governmental decision making than a group of college roommates." (Stegeman v. City of Ann Arbor)

That being said, accommodation ought to be made for protected classes, especially non-traditional unions and group houses for the disabled. These classes are laid out in federal and Washington State law.