Moratorium extended on rental units

Spokane City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to continue a temporary moratorium on converting older homes into large rental units in some sections of the city.

The moratorium stops the city from issuing building permits for additions to single-family homes and for conversions of single-family homes to duplexes in some areas zoned for duplex units. City officials said they are looking at ways to tighten zoning regulations to prevent a proliferation of high-occupancy rental units on small lots.

The moratorium was enacted in May. Now the council has extended the moratorium for 180 more days while planning officials and residents take a look at new regulations governing duplex conversions and additions. Under state law, the city could extend the moratorium for another 180 days next year if work on new regulations has not been finished.

Two residents in the Logan neighborhood complained during Tuesday’s meeting about a recent trend by developers to add bedrooms to older homes by constructing additions in the back yards of the homes. In some cases, the homes are divided into two dwellings with as many as six to 10 bedrooms each.

Councilman Al French, in an interview after the meeting, called them “de facto dormitories.” A number of the developments are near Gonzaga University, and it appears they are intended to attract students who want to live off campus, French and others said.

The developments are creating problems with parking, safety and public health because a larger number of people are living on a single lot in units equipped with one kitchen and one bath, they said. Advocates of the moratorium said they fear neighborhood blight if the practice is allowed to continue and expand across other sections of the city.

During Tuesday’s public hearing on the moratorium, French said, “We can turn our back on a neighborhood and let it go, or we can try to save it.”

Rob Higgins, former council president and a resident of the Logan neighborhood, said several additions have been erected behind classic older homes on East Mission Avenue. The additions are little more than “rectangular boxes” with no architectural relationship to the parent building, he said.

Karen Byrd, a member of the city Plan Commission and a Logan resident, called on the council to enact new building design standards to control the problem.

Ken Pelton, city planner, said the city has several options for regulating duplex conversions and additions to older homes.

Historic areas could be governed as special districts with their own design standards. The city could incorporate tighter standards for duplex conversions and additions as part of its long-awaited update of building and zoning codes. The city could impose limits on occupancy based on factors such as parking and public safety. Also, the neighborhood could recommend changes as part of its neighborhood plan.

The Logan neighborhood has initiated its own neighborhood planning effort as part of the city’s implementation of a three-year-old rewrite of the city’s land-use plan.