Guest Editorial By Lynn Bahrych, JD, PhD

GUEST COLUMN

Court rules against county in guesthouse case 07-27-01

Want to build a main house -- file papers by Feb. 9, 2001

Commissioners to appeal guest house ruling
12-07-00

Guest Editorial

By Lynn Bahrych, JD, PhD

posted 02/26/04
Trivializing affordable housing by permitting new guest houses for the affluent and calling them "affordable ADUs" is bad public policy. The state has a Growth Management Act (GMA) that generally limits the number of individual houses in rural areas to one dwelling unit ("du") per five acres. Our county commissioners are pursuing a law in Olympia that would allow a second freestanding house that could be occupied by a second family on every lot in San Juan County’s rural and resource lands, regardless of lot size or of the size of the house already there. For most people in the state, one du/5 acres means one house per 5 acres. Our GMA Hearings Board has repeatedly said that one dwelling unit does mean one house and that two separate houses can indeed double residential density. The Board has also made it clear that only the provision of truly affordable housing can justify crossing GMA’s bright line between suburban sprawl and rural lands.

The County has appealed this issue twice to superior court in Olympia in the past four years, spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. The county has lost both times. Smarting from the legal losses, the three commissioners have traveled to Olympia this month for a legislative end-run around the GMA sprawl limits, spending more tax dollars. One of their bills would have applied to 31 counties in the state; the other applies only to San Juan County but could undermine GMA’s rural protections statewide. Thus, the bills have been strongly opposed by 1000 Friends of Washington and by the Washington Environmental Council, two large statewide environmental organizations, as well as by the Friends of the San Juans.

The county’s own staff report admits that new guest houses would be primarily for guests—not for affordable housing—and often for the affluent. "More recently, specially built free-standing quarters have become increasingly popular among upscale home builders seeking to accommodate their guests away from the main house." The county’s report also admits that "the primary motive for developing ADUs is to provide accommodations for guests rather than for rental income or provision of affordable housing." The GMA Hearings Board concluded in several of its Orders that "the ability of GHs [guest houses] in rural and resource areas to meet part of the need for affordable housing went beyond wishful thinking."

The Friends of the San Juans is trying to get the BOCC to the settlement table, to resolve this issue for the benefit of everyone. Last year, we offered an olive branch and a carefully thought out proposal containing numerous alternatives, but the BOCC refused to negotiate. Instead they appealed the Hearings Board decision (again) to Thurston County Superior Court (again), spending lots more tax dollars (again), and lost (again).

We are now offering another olive branch with a state agency, the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED), as mediator. We started discussions in Olympia with Commissioners Evans and Miller. They were, unfortunately, not willing to amend the legislation to ensure that it would promote affordable housing. We were only able to persuade them to add expedited permitting of affordable detached ADUs. They rejected these proposals: limit new guest houses to affordable housing; restrict height to one-story; limit rentals to long-term, that is, no vacation rentals; maximum size for primary residence so that "trophy" homes could not have new detached ADU’s; minimum lot size; sliding scale for ADU size depending on lot size. Both commissioners rejected these ideas, insisting on allowing costly new construction, with the hope of an eventual "trickle down" to affordable housing.

As to what other counties are doing, according to our county’s survey, five out of 16 prohibit detached guest houses in rural lands (one requires a conditional use permit); two do not specifically allow detached guest houses; and five impose significant regulations on detached ADUs, such as a minimum lot size. So 12 counties have managed to fit their ADUs comfortably within the sprawl limits of GMA. There is no reason for not doing the same here.

We hope for a creative settlement of this issue, with help from our state legislators, CTED, and our county’s own affordable housing experts.

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