Angry city employees, riled residents, a split City Council.
It may be politics as usual but this sort of conflict is usually reserved for a municipal election year. Who would have thought a 30-year-old duplex in the south end of the city would cause it all?Neighbors of the building fought with the City Council for more than an hour this week, arguing against a zoning change that would allow the duplex, if it were ever destroyed, to possibly become a four-plex.
After the discussion, the council approved the change, despite warnings from its lawyer and the senior councilman, Harold Shafter.
Both say the move could "open a can of worms" for the council.
At issue is whether owners of duplexes located in areas that are otherwise exclusively single-family homes deserve special consideration for zoning changes that could allow them to sell or refinance their property more easily.
In this case, the owner of the duplex, Elbert Randall, says he can't sell the building because local banks won't give a loan to his buyers because the property exists as a "nonconforming use." In other words, it isn't supposed to be in the neighborhood that's otherwise exclusively single-family homes.
"He is being held hostage by the banks so, naturally, he turned to his government for relief," said Mayor John Cushing.
The only relief available was to rezone the property the duplex sits on and some adjacent to it to allow it to exist without the special exemption.
The problem, says City Attorney Russell Mahan, is that a court would probably find that the move violates a state law that prevents "spot zoning." And it also represents a capitulation to the banking industry, he and others in the city said.
"Any time you let a bank dictate zoning policy, it's wrong," said Councilman Shafter. "This will give every nonconforming use in the city the same opportunity. We'll have spot zones throughout the city in 10 years, mark my words."
Spot zoning is the carving out of a property located in a given zone and reclassifying it as a different zone. It's illegal because the action could, for example, put a large apartment complex in the middle of a neighborhood that's exclusively single-family homes.
That is what worries the neighbors of the duplex. And it's caused Mahan to give his warning.
But the three members voting for the change disagreed.
Councilwoman Barbara Holt said the council could decide on a case-by-case basis whether the 20 or so such circumstances in the city deserved rezoning.
And she bristled at the suggestion that the move relinquished zoning control to the banking industry.
"This is a request from a citizen, not a bank," she said.
Councilman Bill Moore and Councilwoman Ann Wilcox agreed. Shafter and Councilman Sam Fowler didn't.
"I see this as just a financing decision in favor of the property owner, nothing more. I don't see the merit in it," Fowler said.
City Planning Director Blaine Gehring said he and other staff members are "angry that the banks are telling us how to zone."
He thinks the issue will remain a battle until banks change their lending policies.