Says city rentals idea will lead to bad infill

E-Mail

Text Size:

tool goes here

I was dumbfounded by the proposals by the City Council to change the definition of family in the Bellingham City Code.

I am for changing of the code to decriminalize initial offenses and to include domestic partnerships.

I am against increasing the limit of unrelated persons from three to four.

This has not been called for by anyone whom I can identify other than councilman Jack Weiss. He said that the number four “plays well.” My question is, “To whom?”

By changing the number to four, the council will have increased legal infill in the city’s neighborhoods by about 9,500 because half of all single family homes (about 19,000), are rented.

Today each of those homes can be rented legally to any group of unrelated people, to a maximum of three. If you change that to four, the legal increase in infill is 9,500.

The city is now trying to convince neighborhoods that they will have the say regarding “the where” of infill.

This change is diametrically opposed to the notion of neighborhood control.

The council should table any further vote on changing the city code until an appropriate citizen group, with neighborhood representatives, has the opportunity to voice its concerns.

Dick Conoboy
Bellingham

Recent Stories