08/31/2006: "Court Agrees To Drop County ADU Case"

The Washington Court of Appeals has honored the County Council (CC) request to not rule on the question of ADUs in SJC. As previously reported in The Island Guardian, the CC had hoped to avoid a ruling by the Court on the appeal originally filed by County Commissioners Evans, Miller and Nielsen. The appeal asked the Court to allow the County to continue operating under the original set of regulations that both limited and controlled the construction of guest houses in the county, but unlike the new regulations, allowed them to be free standing at a far distance from a main house, while allowing them to be constructed on rural and farm-forest lands.

With the dropping of the case by the Court, and the declining to rule by the Growth Management Board on the new regulations contained in the "Vesting" ordinance, the Council and the Friends of the San Juans have pretty much won the Battle of the Little Houses. Except…some of those impacted by the dropping of the old rules and the imposing of the new, may still ask the lower courts to take a look at how all of this was done, and did it follow proper procedures. The saga of The Little Houses may not be over quite yet.