City Council Just Dropped A Bomb With Roslyn Building Permit Moratorium

Personal opinion piece about Roslyn Building Permit Moratorium from a Roslyn vacant lot owner who also happens to have a two decade career in real estate and grew up in a small town.

It has just become even more difficult to build in town with this Roslyn Building Permit Moratorium. With the passing of “emergency” ordinance 1186 this last week, the city council of Roslyn, Washington just halted development in the town again. The ordinance puts in place a six month moratorium on issuing building permits. This is a huge disappointment to many and unless rectified soon, will also bring the real estate values down across the city on vacant Roslyn lots and single family residential Roslyn homes for sale and commercial Roslyn properties will be right behind this. This Roslyn new construction building moratorium follows an earlier ordinance (1180) put in place that halted subdividing and lot line adjustments for a time period.

Why did Roslyn make this moratorium on new building permits move?

Reasons sited for a moratorium included many, but largely and legitimately placed the blame on too many conflicting codes which result in too many permit appeals and also a larger amount of variance requests than usual. Let’s get real, though. Six months is likely not sufficient to be able to straighten up all of the intricacies involved in various parts of the code, but of course the ordinance addresses this by providing for an extension of up to a year, so buckle up. This is the fist part of this saga.

Roslyn real estate values have soared recently, but rather than put restrictions in place to stunt building industry and unfairly restrict the rights of property owners to enjoy their property to the fullest, why not instead focus on fixing our water line issue???

A compromise vs. shutting down Roslyn building permits

There is a way for Roslyn to continue to be Roslyn and still grow and change. It would be so much better for this amazing and beautiful town economically if at least a portion of the numerous vacant lots around town could be used for their highest and best use and be developed in a historically accurate way that is in character with our architecture. This would provide much needed funds to the city coffers and allow us to grow in a smart and appropriate manner while still staying fundamentally Roslyn. If the complaint is that our commerce is largely tourism, then why not expand our tax base and community overall.

Possible other solutions to a Roslyn Building Permit Moratorium

• Capacity of workload seem to be issues with processing permit applications. Conflicting code obviously will make this process more difficult, so addressing the confusion and mixed messages in the code is important and I applaud the city for recognizing this. Let’s take a different approach in doing so and help alleviate this by either assembling a building code committee of qualified volunteers or offer a paid position. We can fund it with additional sewer/water capacity charges when a new building permit holder pays to hook up to the city resources.
• Continue accepting permit applications which adhere to the code as currently written while a new code is written.

Broader picture of Roslyn permitting beyond Home Building Permit Moratorium

While eventually extremely rewarding, we all knew that building a new house or even remodeling a house in Roslyn is not an easy task, but for the city to openly stop accepting applications which allow property owners to be able to improve their real estate seems like it may land the city in hot water.

It’s also going too far in my opinion. Instead, hire or assemble someone or a team to go through the codes right away, but don’t stop our growth and progress in its tracks and don’t cause undue harm and distress financially on people that rely on the code in place to process their permit applications in a timely fashion. If an individual is willing to jump through the considerable hoops required currently to obtain a building permit in Roslyn, then the least the city can do is have the respect to accept it and put it in line to be processed according to the code which is in place. To pass this “emergency” ordinance is not a good solution and unfair to citizens.

Demand creates opportunity. If you aren’t growing you are dying. “Preserving the status quo” as was sited in the ordinance will not help the city.

If you own a vacant lot in Roslyn and would like to protect your property values, please get in touch with your council members and mayor and ask questions and let them know how you feel. If you would like to know the value of your vacant lot, please reach out to me. I am happy to help determine your current value and discuss how this freeze potentially impacts you.

– Courtney roslyn@cooperjacobs.com Full disclosure: Roslyn vacant lot owner :).