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12/13/2005: "8 Homes On 4.85 Acres? Neighbors Say NO!"

(Guardian composite photo of site plan on aerial photo)

A proposal to construct 8 homes on 4.85 acres in an area that allows only one home per 5 acres, has run into stiff opposition by neighbors of the proposed site. Homes for Islanders is using a provision in the UDC (Uniform Development Code) that allows an increase in density if homes are to be made available for "Affordable Housing". The proposal will have to be allowed if all of the requirements of the code are met.

This will be the second project by Homes for Islanders, a local not-for-profit group. to use the little known -or understood- provision in County regulations that allows a greater density to occur than the land use maps show are allowed for an area. Don Antonio, a neighbor of the project wrote that "When I first heard about it I thought there must be a mistake, because all of us who bought land here did so believing we had a land use guarantee that at most there would be only one home per 5 acre parcel. I soon found out that our county commissioners some time ago decided in the interest of ‘affordable housing' to make an exception to the law and allow for such projects called "Rural Residential Clusters".

That surprise has resulted in three of the neighbors filing an appeal of the project, and the appeal was partially heard by the Hearing Examiner on Friday (12-9-05). Wendy Russel, a writer, David Lumsden, a contractor, and John Kulseth, a county employee who works in the SJC Assessor's office, listed a number of objections to the project, but at the start of the hearing re-stated their request for a re-scheduling of the hearing due to the inability of their expert witnesses to appear at the hearing.


Because the agent for Homes for Islanders, John Campbell of Orcas, had assembled his expert witnesses and was ready to proceed, the Hearing Examiner decided to allow the Homes for Islanders to make their case, and then to set a second hearing date to allow those appealing the SEPA determination to present their case.

Campbell's experts presented there testimony in front of the Hearing Examiner using a Power Point background to list the main points of how the project met all of the requirements of the UDC, with respect to the protection of the environment and meeting the general conditions of the regulations that, if met, requires the County to approve the project.

The neighbors now know what the arguments are for approving the project, and it will be their job on January the 19th to convince the County that the project has not been designed in a manner that will protect the environment, or meet the conditions required by the land-use codes.

One item not on the table that appears to be the real objection of the neighbors, is changing a code that allows Affordable Housing projects of increased density to override existing land use designations; designations that would otherwise limit development in rural areas.