City Council - Planning Committee

City of Bellingham Planning Committee Minutes December 6, 2021, 1:00 PM Mayor Seth Fleetwood Contact: (360) 778-8200, ccmail@cob.org Council Members, Lisa Anderson, Chair www.cob.org/council Daniel Hammill, Hollie Huthman All meetings are held in the City Hall Council Chambers at 210 Lottie Street, Bellingham, WA, unless otherwise noted. Call to Order Roll Call Council Standing Committee Meetings Open to the public to attend. Note: there is generally no public comment period for Committee sessions. Standing Committee Members receive reports and information, ask questions and, when appropriate, vote on a recommended action for consideration by the full Council at the Regular Meeting. The notice of Committee Meetings identified below also serves as notice of Special Meetings of the City Council at the times identified as Council Members who are not members of the committee routinely attend and participate in the Committee Meetings. Committee Chairs give a report of the Committee Meeting at the Regular Meeting in the evening prior to deliberation and formal vote in the order shown below: Planning Lisa Anderson, Chair Daniel Hammill, Hollie Huthman 23183 1. Consideration of a Draft Ordinance Amending Certain Sections of the p. 3 BMC to Improve the City’s Code Enforcement Procedures Kurt Nabbefeld, Planning and Community Development, introduced the topic. Planning Code Enforcement Officer, Jennifer Kilmer, provided a presentation that covered land use code violations, outlining the specific BMC changes. Current land use enforcement code is generally undefined and inconsistent between sections, creating enforcement challenges. It is also lacking flexibility, as a violation of the land use code requires criminal misdemeanor charges if a property owner cannot or will not cooperate. With criminal misdemeanor charges, every unresolved code enforcement case must be pursued in a criminal trial. City Prosecution staff have been working beyond capacity and as a result, the most serious crimes must be prioritized. This fact, coupled with the current pandemic backlog and unclear enforcement code language has meant that land use code violations take longer to enforce and sometimes are extremely challenging due to our current process. Generally, the PCDD has a high voluntary Planning Committee Minutes Page 1 December 6, 2021  compliance rate while enforcing our codes, however this proposal includes amendments that will allow the vast majority of land use code violations to be resolved more efficiently and outside of the court system. In addition to streamlining the land use code enforcement process, it will better serve residents and property owners in the City of Bellingham by reducing initial violations of the land use code to an infraction, and by reserving criminal charges for repeat or willful offenses. This code change also provides an additional tool to allow the option of recording a notice of violation against the title of the property if the property owner does not resolve the violation. A notice of violation typically needs to be resolved and removed before a property is sold. At a minimum, a new owner would understand the nature of code violation is present on the property. The amendments are supported by PCDD, Police and Legal staff. MOTION CARRIED 3-0. Adjournment Planning Committee Minutes Page 2 December 6, 2021