The subject of nonconforming use took up most of the May 25 Medical Lake Planning Commission meeting.
City Administrator Doug Ross brought a copy of the city’s municipal code chapter on nonconforming use and requested the commission consider amending it.
The request stems from two lots on the 300 block of North Jefferson Street — one being empty while the other has a house that has been vacant for some time.
According to the city’s municipal code, a nonconforming use is a use of property that was allowed under zoning regulations when it was established, but because of zoning changes, the use is no longer permitted. If the property is vacant after a year then it loses its nonconforming status.
Another example Ross gave of non-conforming use was a single-family home on property that was rezoned from residential to commercial after it was built.
The house on Jefferson Street was built when the property was zoned single-family residential. Although the zone was changed to multi-family (R-3) the house can still be maintained, repaired, remodeled or expanded in accordance with the city code as a nonconforming use. The house’s nonconforming use will be discontinued when it is succeeded by another building that is more conforming, destroyed or damaged to the extent that replacement costs exceed 50 percent of the structure’s value.
As for the vacant lot, Ross explained that legal matters prevented developers from building on it.
The city’s code also states that determination of a nonconforming use of a lot, building or structure is an administrative function of the city’s planning director — or in Medical Lake’s case, Ross. The property owner must submit documentation and must ascertain the date the nonconformity was established and that it conformed to the applicable development regulations in effect at the time.
“It’s the use we bump up against,” Ross said. “We’re so single family, during our last update we didn’t change a lot. It was in 2004 we did wholesale changes and expanded many zones to R3.”
A couple of proposed amendments to the code include allowing a property owner to appeal to the city administrator for the nonconforming use, or to extend the nonconforming use’s duration beyond one year.
Ross said he would speak with City Attorney Cynthia McMullen to see what the city can legally do and cannot do.
In city updates, Ross informed the commission that water samples were taken from wells (Lehn Road and Eastern State Hospital) and came back non-detect for plefueo chemical contamination. When asked if the city will continue testing wells, Ross said staff will take samples and have them tested every six months.
Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.
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