SAN JUAN COUNTY GROWTH MANAGEMENT

List of stories about Growth Management Act in San Juan County

Tell a friend about this page

Enter their
e-mail address:

Planning commission recommends moratoriums

posted 10/01/02
Believing more study is needed, San Juan County Planning Commissioners voted 3 to 2 Friday, September 27, 2002 to recommend the county continue the moratorium on accessory development unit (ADU) construction and impose a moratorium on transient rentals. The commission suggested the construction moratorium could be lifted for a one-year grace period for property owners who had built an ADU, commonly known as a guesthouse, and wanted to construct a primary residence.

A moratorium was imposed November 30, 2000 on guesthouse construction after the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board decided the county's policies and regulations regarding guesthouses failed to comply with the Growth Management Act. At that time the county's lack of hard data on guesthouses and disregard of the Planning Commission's recommendations concerned the three members of the hearings board.

At a public hearing on September 27, 2002, the commissioners listened to a presentation from county Senior Planner Rick Rutz. He referred to a study that examined "the effects of existing and potential future development of accessory dwellings, and of the County’s existing ADU regulations, on rural character (land use and rural economics; shorelines and critical areas; housing affordability and supply; aesthetics and open space; demand for public services and facilities; and traffic) in rural and resource lands."

Rutz explained that a completely new analysis of county records was done. While the assessor records do not include a column for ADU, the number of structures, number of bathrooms and kitchens were evaluated. U.S. Census data was also used. "We feel the amount of error is quite small," he said. "It was a long and thorough analysis. We are very confident this is an adequate representation."

One of the recommendations in the staff report concerned water. Rutz said, "Current county regulations say ADUS have no (water) capacity demand. That is in conflict with what is occuring and with state regulations." The staff recommended the following addition to the Health and Safety Code:

An accessory dwelling unit will constitute 1/3 to 1/2 of a connection in addition to the house. The accessory dwelling will be rated at 1/2 of a connection unless the owner can demonstrate that the use will be less than 1/2, but in no case will it be rated at less than 1/3 of a connection.

Planning Commissioners spent the majority of the morning session discussing the water issue. Planning Commissioner Ri Warren said, "A Class B (water system) can’t handle more than 14 connections. If you have a subdivision on a Class B system with 14 connections, this eliminates ADUs in that system."

Planning Commissioner Lovel Pratt said she was concerned about overall water availability and cited the recently released water report. "I wish the information had been available when the consultant looked at Equivalent Residential Units and ADUs," she said.

Rutz said, "You need to consider water as a county issue. The issue is much larger than ADUs. ADUS aren’t the significant piece in this. What is important is in the past the county was treating ADUs as not creating additional water demand. Our research shows they do. The proposals appropriately contribute to future planning for water supply."

The staff report recommended the county put a 25 percent cap on the percentage of developed parcels with ADUs. Rutz said, "The mechanism we propose would be simple to administer. We feel that a finding of no significant impacts would be supportable at that level. It is a responsive measure." If the number of ADUs hit the cap the county could revisit the issue and adopt other measures to deal with the impacts, he said.

The staff recommended the following language for the performance standards in the county's Unified Development Code:

One internal, attached, or detached free-standing accessory dwelling unit guest house is permitted on any lot having a single-family residence as the principal use of the lot, where not otherwise prohibited by this Code, and shall not be counted in density calculations and shall not require a density unit; provided, the number of building permits that are available in any calendar year for the construction of a new accessory dwelling unit or for the conversion of existing space into an accessory dwelling unit under this provision shall be not more than 25 percent of the number of building permits that were granted for single-family residences for the preceding calendar year (a fractional number of allowable permits shall be rounded up to the nearest whole number), plus any part of a 25-percent allotment that was not used in previous years. ADUs in excess of the 25-percent allotment, or more than one ADU on a parcel, shall require a density unit.

The Planning Commission heard testimony from four residents. John Crosby cautioned against creating a "use it or lose it" type of situation with the 25 percent cap. Gayle Rawlins spoke about "roughing it while waiting for the changes to come along." He and his father had purchased 10 acres planning to build a home and a guesthouse for their own use. He urged the Planning Commissioners to support the staff's recommendations."

The Planning Commissioners deliberated after a lunch break. The majority of the Planning Commission agreed that it would be wise to wait for the water study to be completed before the ADU construction moratorium was lifted. They also agreed more study was needed about the impacts of transient rentals. Planning Commissioners Pratt, Karin Agosta and Larry Hendel voted to recommend the moratoriums. Warren and Terrie Williams voted against the motions. Bob Sundquist, Barbara Thomas, Jim Nelson and Mark Kendziorek were absent.

The next step is a public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners. It is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. October 15, 2002 in the Commissioners Hearing Room in the county Courthouse.

Guest house study released

MORE INFORMATION ON COUNTY'S WEB SITE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

COMPLETE 78-PAGE REPORT