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List of stories about Growth Management Act in San Juan County

Hearings Board queries Comp Plan
appellants and county

posted 03/13/01
After appellants presented their appeals of the San Juan County Comprehensive Plan and the county responded on March 5-6, Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board members Bill Nielsen and Les Eldridge asked them several questions before adjourning for deliberations.

Condensed versions of the questions and answers are below. Hearings Board Chair Bill Nielsen cautioned the hearing attendees not to attempt to read anything from the questions. He noted the board expects to make a decision on the appeals in six weeks.

Nielsen to county Prosecutor Randy Gaylord: If a family of nine needed some "affordable" accomodations -- they have $100 for a week -- where could they find a place in the islands that really needs the income?
Gaylord: Nine people would be one over the county's limit for a transient rental. Three bedroom rentals are available but "there's no way to target you to the people in the most need of renting."

Nielsen to Gaylord: If you don't know where affordable rentals are, then how do you know the county's goal of fostering economic opportunity to those who need it will be accomplished?
Gaylord: There's no way to come up with numbers. The county attempts to "foster opportunity."

Nielsen to Gaylord: Do you have any information that these short-term rentals are available for $100 a week?
Gaylord: Some residents "couldn't live here without that supplement income" from renting carriage houses, guesthouses.

Neilsen to Gaylord: If you don't ask for information -- length of stays and rental rates in transient rentals -- how will you know what's happening over the next few years?
Gaylord: The Fourth Amendment limits intrusions into people's homes.

Nielsen to appellant Lynn Bahyrch: What's the impact if Mr. Eldridge stays in a transient rental. Eldridge laughs: "Remember, I'm unruly."
Bahyrch: "Commercial" activity has a social impact. Unsupervised guests are not as likely to conserve water or be environmentally responsible. "It makes a difference in Rural and Resource lands. It's not a function of our rural lands."

Eldridge to Bahrych: You said transient rentals are not traditional. The county said transient rentals have been going on for decades. Is there anything in the record that this is a new activity?
Bahrych: Guesthouses couldn't be rented legally before 1998. Renting a guesthouse couldn't be grandfathered because it wasn't legal.

Eldridge to Bahrych: The county says it now has data from tax collections. "Could this (transient rentals) be something like the repeal of Prohibition?"
Bahrych: There's nothing in the record indicating wide-spread use.

Eldridge to Bahrych: If the number of transient rentals is small, explain your concern of "a tidal wave."
Bahrych: We are concerned about no potential to address environmental concerns.

Nielsen to attorney Thomas Moser, who represents Dorothy Austin Mudd: How is the county ever supposed to provide for a compact level of development.
Moser: We don't feel there is a need. We see Eastsound as rural and don't see a movement by citizens to develop it as urban.

Nielsen to Moser: With down-zoning, how are you going to maintain services without providing for growth?
Moser: The support system is not there for urban densities and we don't believe the demand for greater infrastructure will come. "There's nothing to fix."

Nielsen to county Deputy Prosecutor Marriner: How is the county addressing services and boundary lines in the Eastsound and Lopez Village Interim UGAs?
Marriner: Eastsound is served by urban facilities -- Eastsound Water District. There is "actual resource capacity there." For Lopez Village, studies are being conducted by the sewer and water districts. The final boundaries will be adjusted accordingly.

Nielsen to Marriner: "Does anybody have any real idea what it's going to cost to upgrade these sewer and water services?"
Marriner: The county believes it is the private providers' responsibility.

Nielsen to Marriner: Doesn't the county have a responsibility to make sure funding will be available for future improvements.
Marriner: The county recognizes there is more to be done. "I can't say the county will be funding these things." The non-profit, utility districts are planning for capital facilities.

Nielsen to Marriner: Where is the authority now for the county to adopt Interim UGAs. Will there be a right to appeal when boundaries are established?
Marriner: The county is committed to completing the UGAs properly.

Nielsen to Moser: If we give the county credit that the (Eastsound) UGA is not final, why do we need to make issue a ruling of invalidity?
Moser: There is no capacity for a UGA. If you have a UGA, "the pressure for growth feeds itself, to get the infrastructure."

Eldridge to Marriner: Does the county have a timetable for development regulations for IUGAs?
Marriner: Interim regulations exist. There is a timetable for an Eastsound capital facilities plan.

Nielsen to Marriner: In Rural Residential Clusters, one-half acre lots are allowed. The county has found use of one-half acre lots doesn't require an urban level of service. A UGA has one-half acre lots and the county says urban services are necessary. In the Roche Harbor Activity Center, there are five-acre and two-acre lots of intensive development. Explain.

Marriner: In a UGA there are a larger number of lots. Clusters will be contained. "The county realizes it isn't going to happen overnight."

Nielsen to Lisa Byers, OPAL director: "Are there any real expectations to use rural lands for affordable housing given the price and that GMA prohibits things that require urban services?"
Byers: In terms of water, the only way Rural Residential Clustering would work is if you have a "gusher" of a well. Septic is possible. "Some individuals are interested in making it possible."

John Campbell, affordable housing advocate: "There's a desire to do it. It isn't easy, but somebody will find a way to do it."
Nielsen to Campbell: "Are you asking us to tell the county to have funding mechanisms (for affordable housing) in place?"
Campbell: "We need a plan that works. A funding mechanism is part of that plan."

Background

Guesthouses:
The county filed an appeal in Thurston County contesting the hearings board's ruling on guesthouses. The board ruled Nov. 30 that the county's guesthouse provisions were invalid. The county was given 180 days to reanalyze the effects of the comp plan's guesthouse provisions on density.

The county has also filed a petition with the hearings board asking for clarification of the guesthouse ruling. Commissioner John Evans wants to know whether the order applies to someone who built a guesthouse first and now wants to build the main house. According to County Deputy Prosecutor Alan Marriner a permit application from a family in that situation has been received by the county Permit Center. A moratorium on guesthouse construction has been in effect since the Nov. 30, 2000 ruling.

Redesignations:
In their Nov. 30 ruling the hearings board ruled the redesignations of 10 parcels in the comp plan were invalid. The parcels which constitute 1,100 acres are subject to a moratorium until the order of invalidity is lifted.

The county is asking for reconsideration regarding three of the 10 parcels -- Deer Harbor Community Hall property, Westlund property near Lopez Village and the Sandwith property on San Juan Island. County Deputy Prosecutor Alan Marriner says the county feels the redesignations for those properties were before the public for a sufficient amount of time. The Deer Harbor and Lopez Village property were discussed by the planning commission and appeared on maps shown in public hearings. The Sandwith property redesignation was part of a legal agreement between the county and the Sandwith family.

Owners of Eagle Lake, one of the 10 parcels ruled invalid, have filed a motion for reconsideration. The county has joined in that case.

When the hearings board issued its order of invalidity for the ten parcels, it did not give any deadline. According to Marriner action by the county will be required before the order of invalidity can be lifted.

March 6 and 7 hearing:
During the two days the hearings board will hear three cases.

First up will be Wally Gudgell's challenge of a rural designation for an property in Westsound.

Then the three members of the hearings board will turn their attention to the continuing case from 1999. The issues of AMIRDs, affordable housing and rural densities are included in that case. See previous stories for details.

The third case consists of eight appeals filed by individuals and the Town of Friday Harbor. The appeals are:

• George Steed is challenging the Roche Harbor Resort Residential Activity Center and transient rentals in rural residential neighborhoods.
  
  
• Dorothy Mudd is challenging the Lopez Village and Eastsound Urban Growth Areas.
  
  
• The Town of Friday Harbor is challenging the rural residential clusters and the consistency between the town's and the county's comprehensive plans regarding guesthouses.
  
  
• John Campbell is challenging the adequacy of the county's efforts to encourage growth in the UGAs.
  
  
• Fred Klein is challenging the Eastsound UGA.
  
  
• Bahrych, Johnson and Symons are challenging the densities in rural and resource lands, transient rentals, protections for conservancy lands, and the adequacy of SEPA review.
  
  
• Michael Durland is challenging the designation of a property in Deer Harbor.
  
  
• Joanne Smith and Frederick E. Ellis, Jr. are challenging the establishment of Lopez Village as a UGA.