Missive to the Mayor

I sent the following letter regarding single family zoning enforcement and related issues to Mayor Dan Pike on 6 September 2008 to remind him of his stated commitments to the neighborhoods, made during his campaign. The citizens of Bellingham have the right to hold their elected leaders accountable for their campaign promises. I invite my readers to send similar letters to Mayor Pike.

September 6, 2008

Mayor Dan Pike

210 Lottie St.
Bellingham, WA 98225

Dear Mayor Pike,

During your campaign last summer to become mayor of Bellingham, I sent an email to you regarding the mess that the city of Bellingham calls single family zoning [see attachment 1 below]. You sent me two replies [attachments 2 and 3 below] in which you stated the following, in part:

"I am committed to addressing this problem. As it stands, the consequences are devalued neighborhoods, a lack of social cohesion in the affected neighborhoods due to excessive residential (e.g., student renter) turnover, and a dispersal of some enforcement issues (parties, etc.) which create more, and more expensive, challenges to effective policing”.

“This particular issue has been simmering since my days as a student at WWU in the early 1980s. I cannot help thinking that a joint, proactive effort among the City, the University, and affected neighborhoods and property owners could have borne fruit by now, if someone at City hall had demonstrated a little leadership.”

“…if untrue [if the code is not unconstitutional], I will begin enforcement of the code.”

We are now more than a year beyond the date of those statements and, curiously, we have heard virtually nothing on the part of you or the Director of Planning on this issue. The code is constitutional (decided by the Supreme Court in 1974). The council seems to have stolen what little leadership has surfaced on the subject, however, most of their actions have resulted in naught to date, except attempting to push a noodle up the hill. A complaint I personally submitted on an illegal rooming house last April is still being ground around in the craw of the city bureaucracy. It took the complaint almost 4 months to exit the Planning Department and find itself at the desk of the Neighborhood Compliance Officer at the Police Department. What was being done on this complaint for four months? (Question for Tim Stewart and not Todd Ramsay)

You have not been reticent in making decisions, some bold and controversial, on other problems facing the city. Unfortunately, issues such as the waterfront development continue to receive page one attention, although not a soul lives there, while our citizens, who actually live in our neighborhoods, see the quality of life, as you said, “devalued” by the encroachment of illegal rooming houses and uncontrolled, unlicensed and uninspected single family rentals.

I am asking you (not the council) again, today,

-to take bold action on this issue,

-to lead instead of follow the council,

-to demonstrate by actions and by voice your commitment to our neighborhoods,

-to notify a heretofore unconcerned Western Washington University that our city is not a de facto sponge created to soak up their student renters each year,

-to provide more code enforcement personnel to the police department,

-to aggressively enforce the codes now in effect,

-to inform landlords, in no uncertain terms, that the free ride is over and that licensing and inspections will be their future.

Those single family homeowners, those of modest means, who live in their homes and who have worked hard to purchase and maintain the largest investment of their lives, are looking to you for the leadership you promised. We had your word on it.

Sincerely,

RJC

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Attachment 1: Email the Zonemaven sent to then-candidate Dan Pike on 25 Jul 2007.

The candidate for any city office who wants my vote will have to provide some concrete solutions to end this mess the City of Bellingham calls zoning. Someone has to get out in front of this issue for once and for all. Who will be the one to lead? All the candidates are speaking to the issue of growth but none is bringing up the subject of the lack of enforcement of the "single family" residential portion of the Bellingham Municipal Code. Everyone wants to sit around the campfire and sing Kumbaya. The problem cannot be solved as long as the city nibbles about the edges of the issue. By nibbling I mean treating the single family home matter as if it were a case of bad rental property owners, alcohol abuse, littering, public urination, parking, etc. These are all symptoms of a more basic problem regarding the approach to zoning enforcement in the city. We spend inordinate hours reviewing, rewording, revising and restructuring our neighborhood plans. Density issues remain a top subject among the citizens and the candidates. All of this becomes meaningless when the basic definition of what constitutes a single family (which is at the core of what constitutes a single family zoning area) purportedly remains elusive. Lack of enforcement has turned parts of this city, zoned single family, into rooming house districts.

I have heard countless times that the current code is unenforceable as it is somehow "unconstitutional." My suspicion is that this mantra of "unenforceability" has been repeated so many times that the assumption is that it is, indeed, valid. Would that someone prove me wrong. Yet, I found after only 5 minutes on the web that Bloomington, IN; Allentown, PA; Lincoln, NE; Binghamton, NY; and Ann Arbor, MI, to name a few, have prevailed in court appeals on their definition as to the makeup of a single family for zoning purposes. If I found these references after only 5 minutes on the Internet, would it be too difficult for candidates to determine if their solutions would be applicable to Bellingham?

Additionally, which candidates will ask that Western Washington University, Bellingham's 800 pound gorilla, step up to the plate in a much more substantial manner? The university just received $47 million dollars for renovation and expansion of their facilities. What role is the university intending to play in the housing of all the students they plan to attract to the expanded university of the future? Who is talking about that? What about the thousands of students each year who are forced by lack of dormitory space to find affordable housing? Not being stupid, they make the economically viable choice, forming group houses. Unfortunately, however, that practice violates the municipal code. Landlords turn a blind eye as do our enforcers. Even if there were no violations of related codes (noise, litter, parking, etc.), the mere footprint of 5-10 people in a single-family home creates a substantially different footprint in a neighborhood where the norm is a family with a few children. The efforts of the Campus Community Coalition are laudable and should continue as an educational process for the students, but to pretend that this will solve the problem of zoning and density within the city limits is to bury one's head in the sand.

Which candidates will stop wringing their collective hands over the issue of the city enforcing its own laws? If candidates are convinced that the current code is unenforceable, will they have the courage to ask that the council remove it from the books so that city will not continue to play with the minds of the citizenry? If we then need something to replace the definition, which I assume must be done to preserve a basic description of "single family zoning", will candidates, once in office, compel the city's legal "experts" to do their homework and reach out to jurisdictions where zoning is a meaningful concept? This cannot remain in the too-hard-to-do column.

Attachment 2: Response from Dan Pike on 7/31/2007:

"I am committed to addressing this problem. As it stands, the consequences are devalued neighborhoods, a lack of social cohesion in the affected neighborhoods due to excessive residential (e.g., student renter) turnover, and a dispersal of some enforcement issues (parties, etc.) which create more, and more expensive, challenges to effective policing.

I have been told that the current code is unenforceable on constitutional grounds. When elected, I will have that looked at. If it proves to be true, I will remove that law from our books and work on other means of solving the problem; if untrue, I will begin enforcement of the code.

Thanks for sharing your concerns with me. I look forward to working productively on election.

Yours for Bellingham,

Dan Pike"

Attachment 3: Response from Mr. Pike on 8/14/2007:

"Below is my reply to an inquiry you sent a couple of weeks ago. I have also received phone and email comments on this issue from others concerned about this issue, and reiterate my intent to address this--early--if elected. As you have noted, an unenforced law is worthless. In fact, it is worse than no law at all.

I have begun reviewing some of the many sites you forwarded; due to time constraints I have only begun, but it certainly appears that other areas have managed to address this issue. Frankly, one of the many reasons I am running is because of issues like this, where a lack of proactive action by the City has left us reacting to a crisis. This particular issue has been simmering since my days as a student at WWU in the early 1980s. I cannot help thinking that a joint, proactive effort among the City, the University, and affected neighborhoods and property owners could have borne fruit by now, if someone at City hall had demonstrated a little leadership.

While I cannot guarantee what solution will work for Bellingham, I will commit to working with you to find and implement an acceptable solution, so this is not a campaign issue in four more years. If you have specific ideas, concerns, or possible solutions, please send them to me at dan@pikeformayor.com. I promise to give this issue the attention it should have had years ago.

Yours for Bellingham,

Dan Pike"