City Obeys, Oks Flats
After years of bowing out, the city of Spokane finally bowed to a state order to allow granny flats in residential neighborhoods. City Council members voted 6-1 Tuesday to allow the accessory apartments.
“There’s a parade of horribles, the feeling that this will be Armageddon for single-family neighborhoods, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” said Mayor Jack Geraghty.
Councilman Chris Anderson dissented, saying the ordinance was too broad and would be abused.
“This opens up nothing less than a quasi-duplex market throughout the city,” Anderson said.
In 1992, the Legislature ordered cities to draft laws by Dec. 31, 1994, allowing “accessory dwelling units.”
Late last year, the council defied the order, arguing Spokane would be forced to address the need for such apartments during growth management planning.
The Coalition of Responsible Disabled, an advocacy group, took the council’s decision to a state appeals board, which ruled in June the city must comply.
The state threatened to withhold about $230,000 a year in growth planning money if the council again defied the order.
Supporters of the plan argue the apartments offer needed housing for the disabled and elderly.
Florence Brassier, director of the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance, said she was “puzzled by the negative reaction” to the ordinance. “Lack of affordable housing continues to be a problem. This is a good, logical approach to that problem,” she said.
Neighborhood advocate Darlene Becker argued the law was too lax and difficult to enforce.
“The people in this community do not want this,” Becker said, adding the law should be tightened to prevent homeowners from converting single-family homes into multiple rentals.
The ordinance states that: the apartments can’t be smaller than 200 square feet or larger than 760 square feet; a separate entrance must be at the side or back of the house; the owner must live in either the main or accessory unit; and the added unit can’t have separate municipal utilities.
, DataTimes