Protect San Juan rural lands!
Stop Senate Bill 6624
Dear Senators Spanel and Roach:
posted 02/05/04
I am writing as a concerned San Juan County resident to ask that you not support our County Commissioners’ attempt to modify the Growth Management Act to eliminate detached guest houses on rural lands from density calculations.
The San Juan County Commissioners’ intent —to add to the County’s stock of affordable housing— may be well intentioned, but their proposal is ill-informed for the following reasons:
- Of the County's over 1500 pre-existing guest houses, fewer than 1 in 12 guest houses provide long-term affordable housing. Both the County’s own 2002 consultant survey and a 2003 survey commissioned by various non-profit affordable housing groups indicate that fewer than 1 in 12 or more of the present guest houses is rented at a price considered "affordable."
- The average income for San Juan County working residents is less than $37,000 annually. The average cost of new housing construction in San Juan County is close to $200 a square foot. Building a detached 1000 square foot guest house would easily cost over $200,000. Add another $30,000 for a dedicated septic system, road, and water system. With a construction cost pushing over $230,000, what reasonable resident would be able to rent their house for less than $1800 dollars a month? For someone earning less than $37,000 annually, spending $21,600 on housing is hardly "affordable."
- Of the fewer than 100 guest houses currently rented, these homes were built before construction costs were anywhere near present levels. At today's construction rates, affordable housing can only be economically built by organizations that are willing to subsidize construction costs (as do the four non-profit affordable housing groups in the islands) with low interest loans and membership contributions.
- The County BOCC has not provided any year round affordable housing alternatives for pre-existing guest houses. If their goal was to provide year round affordable housing, doesn't it make sense that they would be engaged with one of our four affordable housing non profit organizations?
- There are already several legal options for those who wish to provide guest house accommodation. San Juan County already allows accessory apartments and attached and internal guest houses in rural and resource lands, so this bill is aimed entirely at NEW detached guest house construction. Both the Western GMA Board and two Thurston County appeals judges have ruled, based on an extensive factual record, that detached guest houses in San Juan County are the equivalent of a second residence and must be counted as such. Thus, any new ones must comply with the residential density limits set under GMA, that is, one dwelling unit per 5 acres.
- Perpetuating the myth that rentable detached guest houses on rural lands will alleviate the affordable housing shortage is false. This bill contains no language for year round affordable housing, no language about the prohibition against short term transient rental (which displaces many in need each summer), nor provides an size limitation to the construction of guest homes.
- As public policy, it make no sense to encourage the construction of a dozen or more guest houses in the hope that perhaps one will become an affordable year round rental. Given the current high cost of residential construction it is very unlikely that even 1 in 12 guest houses will become an affordable rental. Far more likely, owners wishing to rent out their expensively constructed guest houses will seek long-term renters who will pay market prices, or alternatively add to the growing problem of "transient rentals."
- Removing the density constraint on detached guest houses will lead to exactly the kind of sprawl that the GMA was intended to control. With the highest rate of residential growth in the State, and already over 1500 guest houses, the need for constraints on sprawl in San Juan County has never been greater.
San Juan County has clearly failed to meet its obligation to provide support for affordable housing, but the Commissioners’ proposal has the potential not only to create sprawl, but to undercut existing non-profit efforts, without in any way contributing to a solution to the problem.
Stephanie Buffum Field
Executive Director
FRIENDS OF THE SAN JUANS
Contact Senators Spanel and Roach today!
Sen. Harriet Spanel
spanel_ha@leg.wa.gov
Telephone: (360) 786-7678
Fax: (360) 786-1999
Sen. Pam Roach
roach_pa@leg.wa.gov
Telephone: 360-786-7660
Fax: 360-786-7524
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