By Janet Alderton
(Note: The County Council is holding a public hearing on the ordinance for the mini-vesting initiative on Tuesday, March 1 in the Legislative Hearing Room, 55 Court Street, Friday Harbor, beginning at 10:00 a.m. A link to the proposed ordinance follows this article.)
The current county regulation reads:
Building Permit Validity and Renewal – Conventional Permits
Please be reminded that a building permit will remain active only if work starts within 6 months of permit issuance and continues with no interruption longer than 6 months until final inspection. Occupancy of any structure is not permitted until after final inspection and approval is granted by SJC CD&P. A building permit must be renewed on an annual basis. An annual renewal fee is due until the project has been completed and approved by the county.If work is not started within 6 months of issuance, or if after having started construction, work is suspended or abandoned for more than 6 months, the permit becomes null and void. The permit may, however, be extended for an additional 6 month period upon written request of the applicant showing mitigating circumstances.”
The College of Business Washington Center for Real Estate at Washington State University compiles real estate statistics that are available at their website: https://www.wcrer.wsu.edu/WSHM/
The fourth quarter Housing Market Snapshot is now available. Compared to the state-wide statistics, San Juan County is doing relatively well. Our home resales Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) is up 58.3% compared to the previous quarter. State-wide, the SAAR is up only 17.7%. Compared to one year ago, San Juan County’s SAAR is unchanged at 0%, while the state-wide SAAR is down 21.5%.
The median resale price of homes in San Juan County is $495,000. This is up 15.8% over a year ago. State-wide this metric is down 2%.
I find the building permit data very interesting. In San Juan County, the number of building permits issued in the final quarter of 2010 is down 62.5% compared to one year ago. State-wide, building permits are up 16.4%. There are rumors that building permit activity is increasing due to property owner panic about the CAO Update. If so, this is a very slow-moving panic. The Common Sense Alliance (CSA) fear campaign has been in high gear for several years, but property owners have not responded by flooding the CDPD with building permit applications that would vest their plans under the current regulations.
It is more likely that market forces (the great recession) have driven building permit activity in San Juan County. If permit applications are finally increasing in this first quarter of 2011, then the change is likely due to broader changes in our state and national economy. I truly hope that the great recession is ending.
These hard data from the Washington Center for Real Estate show that the rhetoric over the necessity of the mini-vesting initiative is much ado about nothing.
(The proposed ordinance may be viewed at:
https://sanjuanco.com/Docs/CAgendadocs/03-01-2011/PH_2010_3MiniInitiativePetition_03011.pdf )
The Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) scheduled for completion this year offers all property owners equal rights and benefits. In contrast, the vesting mini-initiative filed by local realtors seeks to suspend CAO requirements for developers of vacant land for four years.
I understand that property owners and realtors are frustrated by the state of our current economy. However, a vesting initiative that sacrifices the rights of the many for a select few is not going to change the financial reality of this county or this nation. And with the completion of the CAO, relief will soon arrive.
The vesting initiative would allow an extended exemption from new rules. Vesting means that the County reviews a project based on rules in place at a certain stage in the development process. Right now, a project must be reviewed for consistency with rules in place at the time that a complete building permit application is submitted to the planning department, even if different rules take effect the following day, and even if years will pass before the project is completed. Under the proposed initiative, however, a developer could vest for four years simply by submitting a preliminary document (a residential site plan application) showing the proposed location of buildings on a parcel. Thus, a project could be out of compliance with four years of new rules just by the time the project begins.
San Juan County already follows Washington State’s vesting laws which are among the most developer friendly in the nation. . Washington’s vesting rules allow a developer to lock in land use rules that are in effect when they file a complete building permit application. The development of that property can then avoid new land use laws enacted after that application is filed. In most states, those rules are not locked in until a landowner receives an approval to build, and in some states, the rules are not set until development begins on a project. Our county’s vesting laws already accommodate a generous vesting period for developers. This initiative is redundant and unnecessary.
In addition to frustrating our community’s ability to plan thoughtfully for future development, the initiative would create an administrative headache for permitting staff, and would subsidize a select few with the ability to harm our public resources. Upon receipt of a building permit several years down the road, Community Development and Planning Department staff would have to pore over past versions of the County Code to determine which laws applied to the project.
Any change in vesting law requires a public legislative process; we believe it is unlawful for the county to adopt the mini-initiative.
All property owners in San Juan County deserve fairness and certainty. Tell the County Council to stop being distracted by the mini-initiative. It is a fruitless exercise that only consumes time that could be spent completing the county’s top three legislative priorities for 2010/2011 (Budget, Critical Areas Ordinance and Solid Waste).
–Stephanie Buffum