PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners today will consider a 60-day emergency ordinance that would limit the size of structures in rural residential areas.
Community Development Director Mary Ellen Winborn pitched the ordinance in response to a developer’s plans to build a 32,000-square-foot “hotel” on East Sequim Bay Road near Sequim.
“It’s just like a timeout,” Winborn told commissioners Monday. “We just need to do some research.”
The structure was first proposed in the spring of 2015 as a 14,000-square-foot exclusive bed and breakfast, Winborn said.
The unnamed developer has submitted preliminary plans to the county but has not yet obtained a building permit.
Under the proposed ordinance, structures in rural residential areas would be limited to 10,000 square feet.
“The largest house in the county is 10,000 square feet,” Winborn said.
“A really nice home in the county is 5,000 square feet.
“This is different,” she added. “It’s a hotel.”
Meeting today
Commissioners will consider the emergency ordinance in their business meeting at 10 a.m. today in the commissioners’ boardroom (160) at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St.
“I would love to be able to press pause for 60 days,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said.
“It’s easy to imagine the community having some significant concerns. I think it’s pretty easy to see that this would not be in line at all with anything else in the rest of the county.”
No commissioner objected to the ordinance Monday.
The board did ask for advice from the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office before they take action on the emergency zoning.
“I’d like to see the pause so that we can sort out how we can make this [development] happen,” Commissioner Bill Peach said.
“As a capitalist, as someone interested in the commerce and tax revenue, I’d like to see it succeed, but I don’t know how to make that happen.”
Peach added: “I’m not saying let’s stop it for 60 days because it’s a prelude to stopping it forever.
“I’m saying stop it, figure out what can we do, and then if there’s a cost associated with the decision for that particular site by the landowner, we should tell them what it is up front,” Peach said.
Community Development officials would not name the developer or provide an address for the parcel that sparked the proposed action, saying the ordinance is not specific to a particular property.
East Sequim Bay Road
Winborn disclosed that the property is on East Sequim Bay Road after a public records request was filed by the Peninsula Daily News.
Hotels are allowed in the county’s urban growth areas and in rural commercial zones, Planning Manger Steve Gray told commissioners.
Bed and breakfasts are allowed in most rural residential zones and in limited areas of more intensive rural development, or LAMIRDs, Gray said.
The standard for bed and breakfasts is a single-family dwelling and five or fewer rooms for overnight accommodations, Gray said.
The proposed bed and breakfast east of Sequim Bay would have 17 rooms in five units targeted to guests in a four-story building with 25 bathrooms, Gray said.
The top floor would be occupied by the owner or managers. The bottom two floors would have dining rooms, a library, theater and other commons areas.
“You can call an elephant a pig all day long, but that doesn’t make an elephant a pig, a pig an elephant,” Winborn told commissioners. “This is a hotel.”
The subject property is zoned rural moderate, where hotel-motels are restricted, Gray said.
Developed sites
The emergency ordinance limiting structures to 10,000 square feet would not apply to commercial areas such as Deer Park and other developed sites along U.S. Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Sequim.
“The zones that we’re looking at that are in the draft ordinance are truly rural residential zones, so areas that would be primarily — if you drove through them — single family homes, farms, forest lands, maybe some smaller scale home-based businesses,” Gray said.
“Those are the zones it would apply to.”
The county would likely lose a court challenge if it tried to rezone the East Sequim Bay Road property from rural residential to rural commercial, Gray said.
Commissioners would need to hold a public hearing to extend the emergency ordinance beyond 60 days.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.