Twilight Zoning in Bellingham: More from the Blue Grass State

Monday, August 25, 2008

More from the Blue Grass State - Lexington's Own Twilight Zone

If imitation is, indeed, the most sincere form of flattery, I should be flattered. Instead, I am just happy to see someone else take on the local mugwumps and self-proclaimed kahunas of academe. My blog entry of 17 August entitled “Singing the Single Family Blues in the Bluegrass State” (Click here to read that entry) described a single family zoning situation in Lexington, Kentucky, similar to the one we find in Bellingham. Citizen activist, Dennis Duross, in Lexington has launched his own blog, akin to Twilight Zoning in Bellingham. His blog, entitled Pigs in the Parlor can be found by clicking here.

Interestingly, Dennis' blog entry cites another US Supreme Court decision on zoning, Euclid v. Ambler Real Estate. (Click here to read about that decision.) Regarding the results of landlords packing rentals Dennis states, “…as noted 82 years ago in the US Supreme Court decision Euclid v Ambler Realty Co. …these are but symptoms of crowding a temporary population into spaces and places that were never intended to accommodate them, and that the zoning law (which that decision upheld as valid) does not allow."

1 comment:

mxsticker said...: FYI – one member of sunnyland neighborhood reported they had an amenable talk with the property owner on Aug 20th. The property owner reiterated that he absolutely will not be beholden to the city or any government's rules as for affordable housing. Many of us were present on Thursday night, when he explained / avoided making any clear monetary cost of unit, or lot size, when asked what he thought of as “affordable”.

The idea of a “park” with pedestrian/ biking access to neighborhood to build community is something I hear a lot of support for – I have this query: If you are coming or going to/ from Sunset / Illinois, why would you go part way down Illinois to cut through to Sunset. You are accessing James, Ellis, or Sunset itself, so what is the benefit? If you are headed eastbound on Sunset you would enter and cut through to Illinois and then detour down one of the side streets. Why is that better than just going down Ellis to Illinois by bike or walking? If you are coming from Illinois, you can’t cross Sunset there, so we assume you are also headed East. Why is that better than taking Illinois to James. I have to say, I at first supported this idea, but now it makes no sense to me, as the whole idea is to avoid being on Sunset. Entering and exiting in mid road serves No purpose I can see. Please enlighten me as to why people feel this is so necessary.
Also please note the city has on its agenda that they need to create “public space for the citizens to meet, talk, and play”. I heard AHBL use that language in responding to our wanting a link to this area of development, as if that would be our space to fit this need. I have a problem with this as it is not centrally located, is in size very small and we should be determining where that space will best suit our neighborhood not them. I encourage you/us, as a neighborhood to come up with our own ideas of creating "Public Space" within our neighborhood. We will need to then make it part of our neighborhood plan.

We need to insist that we have a contract between the city, developer and us to assure we get what we agree to. There are other neighborhoods that voted on nice pictures and did not get what they agreed to in the way of actual buildings in their neighborhood.; August 26, 2008 at 4:53 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.