Twilight Zoning in Bellingham: STOP! Rental Licensing Is NOT About Single Family Zoning

Friday, April 2, 2010

STOP! Rental Licensing Is NOT About Single Family Zoning

As I have been speaking to representatives of various neighborhoods and to individuals throughout the community, I have found that many are conflating the current discussion about licensing rentals in Bellingham with the issue of single family zoning (so-called "rule of three"). These subjects are not interchangeable.

Rental licensing is about basic health and safety issues. Single family codes are about zoning and density. For those who have been reading this blog since its inception in 2007, you are aware that I am a vociferous supporter of the enforcement of zoning codes. Non-enforcement of these codes over the last several decades has had a deleterious effect on our neighborhoods, resulting in an insidious and clandestine infill that changes their character.

While working on the zoning issue, I discovered tangential problems having to do with the condition of our rental stock. These problems overshadowed the zoning issue in that the state of the rentals in Bellingham presents a public safety and health question which cannot be ignored, especially given our highly transient renter population.

The zoning problem still needs attention but licensing rentals will not solve it. There is work to be done on the zoning code itself, primarily in decriminalizing violations by making them civil infractions. The code also can be updated to include recent changes in law relating to the passage of R-71 on domestic partnerships. I fully support such revisions.

Those who purposely confuse these two issues in order to defeat the passage of rental licensing in Bellingham are doing a disservice to the renters of the over 17,000 units now in the market. Lack of rental licensing and inspection deserves debate on its own merits. To not do so would be a detriment to half our population who now resides in units about which neither the landlords nor the renters have sufficient knowledge regarding their safety.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: RCW 59.18.115 is the mandatory inspection code and RCW 59.18.085 recites what happens when the housing is deficient.

Hope this helps you. Elizabeth Powell; February 29, 2012 at 2:32 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.