PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners Tuesday passed a 60-day emergency ordinance that limits building sizes to no larger than 10,000 square feet in rural areas.
Commissioners said the temporary law is an attempt to head off an impending application for a 32,000-square-foot, 695 E. Sequim Bay Road project that the applicant is applying for as a bed and breakfast — but which the county’s top land-use official has likened to a hotel.
The current county code does not include square-foot limitations that would apply to the project.
Approved 2-1
Commissioners approved the temporary law 2-1 over Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols’s reservations and as Department of Community Development Director Mary Ellen Winborn was awaiting the applicant’s payment Tuesday to begin a plan-check review for the project.
Winborn said she made sure the money hadn’t arrived right before she went to the 9 a.m. meeting.
“It was totally a race against time,” she added, referring to board consideration of the ordinance.
The $10,872 check did arrive shortly before noon Tuesday, Winborn said after the meeting.
But Winborn said it is unclear if the project is already vested, meaning the county could be required to process the application anyway under the existing ordinance.
“The permit is not complete yet,” she said.
“We just have to sort it all out.”
The planning commission is expected to meet to consider interim land-use rules during the temporary ordinance’s 60-day window, said Port Angeles-area Commissioner Chairman Mike Chapman, who joined Sequim-area Commissioner Mark Ozias in voting for the emergency rule.
“I don’t know where we are going to land,” Chapman said, adding that final rules are likely to be closer to 10,000 square feet than 30,000 square feet.
Property owner
The property is owned by Dzogchen LLC of Los Angeles, Calif., which purchased the parcel for $400,000 on May 17, according to county records.
A Dzogchen representative could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Winborn asked that consideration of the ordinance be added to the agenda after she received a July 21 letter from the Port Angeles engineering firm Northwestern Territories Inc. to Judy Lee at Dzogchen LLC.
Second building
The letter, which said NTI had been requested to prepare a drainage, erosion and sediment-control plan for the project, described “future plans to build a second identical building on the northerly lot.”
Winborn said Tuesday that representatives of the project have threatened to go to Clallam County Superior Court if the county rules the project cannot move forward.
Debra West, NTI business manager, would not comment Tuesday on the project.
Legal action
Winborn and Chapman, who is running for a 24th district state House of Representatives position, acknowledged the potential for legal action against the county.
“I don’t know if this will show up in court,” Chapman said, adding the DCD and commissioners “should respect the advice the prosecutor gave us.”
Nichols would not comment on his assessment of the project, citing attorney-client privilege.
But the project, Chapman said, was of “a size and scope that could never have been contemplated that will forever change [the] rural character” of the area near the parcel, which lies north of East Sequim Bay Road’s intersection with Old Blyn Highway.
Peach opposed
Peach was opposed, suggesting that the temporary rule was unfair to the applicant, who was simply applying for a permit under existing rules.
Commissioner Mark Ozias, added he, too, struggled with the legal ramifications.
“In many regards, it’s not fair to tell someone you can’t do something you thought you could do because we didn’t do a good enough job planning,” Ozias said.
“The reality is that a project like this could have a significant impact on the surrounding wells and water supply.”
Winborn compared the structure to a hotel at a June 18 commissioners’ meeting when she first proposed the ordinance and said it would be three times larger than the largest house in the county.
She said the building would be 3,000 square feet larger than the Quality Inn & Suites in Sequim.
Hotels are allowed in urban growth areas and rural commercial zones, while bed-and-breakfasts are allowed in most rural residential zones and limited areas of more intensive rural development, or LAMRIDs.
Under the county code, a bed-and-breakfast inn consists of “a single family dwelling on property occupied by the owner or manager which is constructed or converted partially or entirely into an overnight, short-term boarding house which does not detract from the residential appearance of the structure and has five or fewer rooms for overnight accommodations.”
The proposed four-story building contains five overnight suites with 11 rooms overall for guests.
It also includes 25 bathrooms, dining rooms, a library, a music room, a theater, his and her massage rooms, his and her exercise rooms, and common areas, Planning Manager Steve Gray said at the July 18 meeting.
The top floor would be occupied by the owner or managers.
Winborn said Tuesday the suites average about 900 square feet each.
Public concerns
Area residents spoke during the public comment session before commissioners considered the ordinance, expressing concerns about water usage, water storage that might be needed for firefighting purposes and traffic.
“We hold dear and value this place,” Rhapsody Drive resident Erving Ruhl said, comparing the building to Highclere Castle on the popular PBS series, “Downton Abbey.”
“It would be a blight on the landscape.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
