Twilight Zoning in Bellingham: Update to My Blog Entry on 25 February Council Meeting

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Update to My Blog Entry on 25 February Council Meeting

Sam Taylor posted the following update to his Herald blog yesterday:

"*Update - SATURDAY* On his Zonemaven blog, Dick Conoboy states that aside from the committee meeting I’ve cited, the council will also take it up at their 7 p.m. meeting. This is incorrect. The agenda packet has listed the meeting only in committee as a Briefing/Discussion. The council will provide direction to staff as to where they want to go at the committee meeting. Depending on what they decide it could either come back soon or much, much later. If they choose option #2 as Ramsay is suggesting to them as the best option (though he’ll still give them three), then I doubt it would come back soon, because the city will have to work on reclassifying the litter control position to include more responsibility and likely be in a different pay code/bracket."

Here is my response (which has also been posted on the Herald site):

Sam,

The Zonemaven incorrect! Horrors! :-)

I carefully reviewed the agenda (click here to read) and supporting documents (click here). The agenda for the 25 February meeting lists CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE MEETINGS (among which is the PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MEETING where the single family zoning enforcement recommendations are to be presented) under the rubric of THE FOLLOWING ARE HEARD IN BOTH COMMITTEE AND REGULAR MEETINGS. If this agenda is incorrect, the city has not yet posted any amendments. The agenda bill 17823 does indicate that the recommended action is to provide direction to staff, however, given the agenda of the council meeting it is unclear as to the time (committee meeting or regular council meeting) this direction will take place.

I must also point out in the interest of fairness that the Council Agendas are presented in a confusing matter in that there are no numerals (Roman or Arabic) introducing the major headings so it is extremely difficult to decipher exactly that which constitutes major or subordinate entries. Not to mention that the several subheadings, which are numbered, have a "1" without a subsequent "2"- Basic Outlining 101.

2 comments:

Zonemaven said...: Update from Sam Taylor on Sunday, 24 February:

Dick, good points on the agenda. I guess I've just gotten so used to them I can see why they might be a bit confusing.

I suppose I'm a bit unclear as well. I can't make up mind as to whether or not they'll actually vote the night meeting. Committees often provide direction to staff and don't vote on it at the night meeting. Conversely, they sometimes do take action at night on staff direction.

But I believe the actual direction is going to come out of the committee meeting, and that's how it often works. Many times the council will have the most thorough discussion during committee and quickly vote on the issue at the night meeting with little to no discussion taking place.

I'd rather send people to the committee meeting in order to give them the fuller picture of the issue, rather than a hurried vote at night where they'll likely get no context of the situation.

Plus - I'll be there to cover it, too. ;)

By the way - since this is confusing, I'll get ahold of J. Lynne Walker, the council legislative coordinator, and speak with her about what she believes will be taking place, since I'm no expert.; February 24, 2008 at 2:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Hey are you a professional journalist? This article is very well written, as compared to most other blogs i saw today….
anyhow thanks for the good read!; December 8, 2009 at 11:01 AM

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.