County will appeal
Growth Board guesthouse ruling
posted 03/25/03
San Juan County Commissioners voted unanimously March 25, 2003 to file suit in Superior Court to appeal the March 20, 2003 decision by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board. The hearings board said detached guesthouses need to be counted as part of density calculations in rural areas. The BOCC met behind closed doors in executive session for 45 minutes prior to voting to sue.
Hearings board says no
to detached guesthouses
posted 03/21/03
The Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board issued its ruling regarding accessory dwelling units in San Juan County March 20, 2003. "We find that the County's regulations, as they apply to freestanding ADUs in rural residential areas outside of Limited Areas of More Intense Rural Development (LAMIRDS) create a density that has consistently been determined to be sprawl by this Board and the Central Board... Allowing detached ADUs without counting them as a unit for the purpose of calculating the underlying density is not compliant."
The ruling means the moratorium on building detached ADUs has not been lifted. It has been in effect since November 30, 2000. The Board of County Commissioners will discuss the ruling and what actions the county will take at their March 25, 2003 meeting.
The hearings board said attached ADUs are allowed. It also found the new study the county did of impacts of ADUs was adequate.
The entire 49-page decision is available on hearings board Web site.
Guesthouse rules adopted
posted 12/04/02
Guesthouses are now officially called accessory dwelling units and transient rentals are now vacation rentals. Those were two of the changes to the county's Unified Development Code approved yesterday, Dec. 3, 2002 by the San Juan County Commissioners. A requirement that ADUs must be sited within 100 feet of the main house was dropped from the final draft.
The commissioners were concerned about the effect the 100-foot requirement would have on property owners who had already built guesthouses with the intent of someday building their main home. In those cases the original guesthouse wouldn't have been sited with the 100-foot rule in mind. Since there were six other criteria listed regarding siting, the three commissioners agreed to drop the 100-foot requirement.
That was the only change from the draft the BOCC worked on in November. Details are listed in previous stories.
The new regulations will be submitted to the Growth Management Hearings Board. If the new regulations are found to be in compliance with the Growth Management Act, the county could ask to have the two-year-old moratorium on ADU construction lifted.
Guesthouse rules set to be adopted Dec. 3
posted 11/08/02
New rules regarding accessory dwelling units (guesthouses) and transient rentals involve siting, management, water availability, and semantics. From now on transient rentals will be called vacation rentals and property owners who rent them out will be required to provide a contact number that is available 24 hours a day. The number does not have to be local.
ADUs on community water systems must have water availability equal to 1/3 of a residential unit. The current rules did not have a separate water availability requirement for ADUs. Commissioner John Evans asked, "Are we going to create problems by going this route for group B water systems?"
San Juan County Environmental Health Manager Mark Tompkins said, "I don’t think so, except for the Group Bs that have 10 (subscribers) and they all want to add ADUS. If they go over 15, they go to Class A." He said most of the Class B systems in that situation have been built to Class A standards. The commissioners all agreed to the water requirement.
Commissioners Darcie Nielsen and Rhea Miller favored the addition of a siting requirement for ADUs. A portion of the ADU must be within 100 feet of the main residence unless there are environmental or site specific reasons making it undesireable to do so. Evans was opposed to the requirement.
The commissioners did not want to place a limit on the number of ADUs. Instead they agreed the permit center and assessor's office would track the numbers. The permit center and the planning department would annually monitor the cumulative percentage of residentially developed parcels in rural and resource lands that have ADUs. When and if the number meets or exceeds 25 percent, the planning department would conduct additional environmental analysis.
The commissioners agreed to language changes to fix an anomaly. Evans said under the current rules if a person wanted to rent out an ADU, there had to be a permanent resident or lessee in the main house. The commissioners agreed they did not want to allow both the main house and the ADU to be rented as vacation rentals. But they did want to clarify wording, so a homeowner who just used the residence part-time could rent out the ADU. Senior Planner Rick Rutz said it could be rewritten to say the residence must be occupied by the owner or long term lessee or the unit must remain unrented.
The board briefly considered ways to limit the number of transient rentals in any one neighborhood. At Nielsen's suggestion, wording similar to the Town of Mendocino, California regulations was discussed. That municipality limits the ratio of owner occupied or long-term rentasl to transient rentals to 13:1. Rutz pointed out there are 52 distinct neighborhoods in the county where the rules could apply. The size ranges from seven to more than 250. Treating them all as one unit could end up with neighborhoods that are all transient rentals. If they were treated separately it would become an administrative burden he said.
Evans said, "There are so many things that can go wrong with trying to go down this approach. Someone could say: I’m going to get permits and never use them just to keep them out of the neighborhoods." Both Nielsen and Miller said they were concerned about saturation of neighborhoods but the solution was not workable.
The BOCC plan to adopt the changes to the Unified Development Code at their Dec. 3, 2002 meeting. Before the current moratorium on ADU construction is lifted the Growth Management Hearings Board has to find the new regulations put the county in compliance with the Growth Management Act.
BOCC: No cap on guesthouses
posted 10/21/02
San Juan County Commissioners turned down most of the planning department recommendations regarding guesthouses during a worksession Tuesday, October 15, 2002. A 25 percent cap on the number of parcels with accessory dwelling units was rejected. Requirements for water will be discussed at 2 p.m. November 5, 2002 after the BOCC hears from Envirnomental Health Manager Mark Tompkins.
In July 1999, October 2000 and in November 2001, the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board decided the county's policies and regulations regarding guesthouses failed to comply with the Growth Management Act. The county hired a consultant to compile facts and statistics about accessory dwelling units in San Juan County. A summary of the consultant's work, the planning commission and planning department staff's recommendations are available in a PDF version of the 76 page report on the county's Web site.
The impacts on density of allowing an ADU on every parcel in San Juan County was one of the issues to be addressed. At the October 15, 2002 hearing, County Commissioner Darcie Nielsen noted the report states: No other Washington county jurisdiction counts the first ADU on a parcel toward residential density.
Because San Juan County's Comprehensive Plan was appealed regarding the density impact of ADUs density and found to be non-compliant with the GMA, the county must address the issue. If no one had appealed the regulations, the county would not have had to deal with the issue according to planning department staff.
While other counties do not count ADUs towards density, they do have a variety of restrictions. They range from an outright ban on detached ADUs, to restrictions in certain land use designations, to use only by family members. Island County limits the number of permits for ADUs per year. A few counties have no restrictions. A list is included in the appendix of the county's report.
Under current rules, ADUs in San Juan County are limited to not more than 1,000 square feet and must share water and sewer systems with the main house. Rentals of the ADUs are allowed if the main house is used by the owner or a long-term leasee.
The BOCC disagreed with the suggestion that a 25 percent cap be placed on ADUs. Senior Planner RIck Rutz said, "The report recommends an upper limit of 25 percent of properties be allowed to develop ADUs without counting towards density."
Commissioner John Evans said, "I think it would be a nightmare. There is absolutely nothing that would keep the planning department from keeping a tally and doing their own percentages. They can alert future boards if the number starts approaching 25 percent."
Commissioner Darcie Nielsen didn't favor the cap either. She did like the siting and landscaping requirements. Evans and Commissioner Rhea Miller did not believe the landscaping rules were necessary.
Miller said she had lived in three different guesthouses during her first 15 years in the islands. She noted many people do not want to rent them out. She favored the regulations requiring the same water, sewer, driveway as the main residence.
The public hearing will resume at 2 p.m. Tuesday, November 5, 2002 for board deliberations only. The public testimony part of the hearing is over.
| Statistics for Non-Urban Residentially Developed Parcels |
| Total developed parcels: |
6,569 |
| Total parcels with an ADU: |
1,095 |
| Percentage with an ADU |
16.7% |
| Percentage with an ADU that is rented long-term |
3.0% |
| Percentage with an ADU that is rented short-term |
0.7% |
|
|
MORE INFORMATION ON COUNTY'S WEB SITE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
COMPLETE 78-PAGE REPORT
|
