|
 | |||
| Lopez Island | Orcas Island | Visitor's Guide | ||
| Email this page to a friend | ||
| ||||||||||||||||
|
SAN JUAN ISLANDER EDITORIAL |
|
Email this page to a friend RELATED PAGES | |
Editorial: Do the ends justify the means if the issue is affordable housing?posted 05/31/2007
Many islanders have volunteered time, expertise and money to create opportunities for others to become homeowners - OPAL, Lopez Community Land Trust, Homes for Islanders, San Juan Community Home Trust, San Juan County's Housing Bank, etc. All of the groups are to be commended for their hard work. It takes a tremendous amount of time and paperwork to put one of these projects together. Some of these projects are publicly funded and some are privately funded. The projects are subject to the county's or town's land use regulations. The San Juan Community Land Trust wants to do a second project since they have completed the Salal project which has provided 15 homes for islanders. In order to do so, they want some land annexed into town by a certain date. So an email from Home Trust Executive Director Nancy DeVaux is sent to a county councilmember and forwarded to the rest of the council: "A supporter of the Home Trust (e.g. Larry Soll) had obtained an option on the property that is contingent on the property being included in the UGA and subsequent annexation into Town. Should this happen, the land will be donated to the Home Trust." According to the email, the town would finish its work on the expansion in April and the county wouldn't begin until September at the earliest. The email said: "Larry Soll replied to this information: We need to start applying pressure to the County to get this moving this spring. One thing you should tell them is that if it is not approved, we stand a good chance of losing this opportunity which equates to well over $3 million in donations for affordable housing. It also means that we would have to postpone the capital campaign and cover the overhead of the office for another year without having anything to build or grants to write. In some very real ways, it threatens the existence of the Home Trust." In order to accommodate the Home Trust's deadline the county Council makes an emergency appropriation of $25,000 of taypayer money to pay for a consultant. Asked about the deadline in a phone interview May 30, 2007, Larry Soll said the owners of the property gave the Trust the option for 18 months until March 2008. "They are at a time in their life," he said when they want to do something with the property. Asked if the deadline was related to a taxbreak for the donation, Soll would not acknowledge that he was the donor. He said the email should never have been released. (Anything given to the council is public record.) Speaking on behalf of the anonymous donor, he answered the question. "It was not a driving force, I assure you," he said. "The tax advantage makes it somewhat easier to swallow." The 46-acre property is currently appraised at $1.25 million. It can be divided into nine 5-acre parcels. County Assessor Charles Zalmanek did not have an estimate of the value if it is annexed into the town. "It would depend on the land-use classification," he said. "Some of it is view property." Single-family zoning would allow four homes per acre or 184 homes. Multi-family would allow 14 per acre or a maximum of 644 which of course wouldn't happen. Obviously the value of the property skyrockets once it is annexed into the town and has town utilities. So what's the problem. Nothing, if everyone had been upfront about what is going on and hadn't pressured the county, bullied the planning commission and town council at the public hearing. At the May 24, 2007 public hearing which lasted from 5:30 to 8:40 p.m. the Town Council and the volunteer planning commissioners were insulted and told some falsehoods by proponents of the project. Calling the council and commission failures, telling them the "school enrollment is plummeting" when it has declined an average of 2 percent over the past four years and actually increased last year, is just not right. One of the proponents noted no one spoke against the property being annexed. Who would dare, in a room packed with people for the project. The hearing was for expansion of the UGA. It was not for a specific affordable housing project. Infrastructure, land for industrial, commercial, professional services and housing are part of the consideration when deciding where to expand. The council and commission were there to figure out if, where and by how much the town needed to expand. They were there to hear from the citizens. Being able to discuss things openly, without feeling pressured by one group, no matter how noble their cause is important. Annexation of the land may be a great idea. It might make a lot of sense. Mariella which borders the property is already in town. The Home Trust could have approached the issue of the land by saying we have found a win/win/win solution to finding land. If the town annexes the property, the property owners will sell a third to the Home Trust founder, who will donate the land to the trust. They could have asked the owners to work with the actual timeline that exists for setting the UGA so the county didn't have to spend $25,000 on a consultant. They could have followed the same rules everyone else has had to follow. It's that simple. |
|
|
SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2008 |
|