Code enforcement defined

Community Development director Brian Jennings clarified the definition of “functional family” as it applies to the code enforcement ordinance for the Cheney City Council at its meeting Tuesday night.

In a neighborhood that is zoned R-1, which is the term for single-family residents, a home can have one family or functional family plus one unrelated adult. In an R-2 neighborhood, or two-family residential, a home can have one family or functional family plus two adults.

If there are three unrelated people in a home, the residents can be defined as a functional family if they demonstrate there is a relationship between two of the adults in the home by one of a list of qualifiers. The occupants must share a bank account, furniture, real estate, a bedroom or utility bills.

“I understand it’s uncomfortable,” Jennings told the council.

The definition was put into place to discourage several people from residing in a house that was meant for a single family. Jennings said the language in the definition was pulled from that of the city of Pullman.

Pullman and Cheney are both college towns in which many students choose to live off campus. Jennings said there have been two or three complaints to code enforcement this year in Cheney.

Jennings told the council there have been many questions about this definition recently, and he wants to make sure it is clear to the council and residents.

“We’ll be drafting a letter to property owners who don’t live here,” he told the council.

A chart of how many adults are allowed in homes is available on the city’s code enforcement page of its Web site: www.cityof cheney.org/site/departments/ building/code_enforcement.