Understanding the council divide on land-use appeals

This year, four council members took away your right to appeal certain land-use decisions, including variances. In short, they shut the door on you.

This means a developer can apply for a variance to waive codes regarding setbacks, height limits, and even environmental regulations. You can no longer appeal variance decisions to the council.

While you may appeal unjust variances to court, the cost is prohibitive. These four council members have essentially used financial means to shut down your ability to appeal unjust variances. Again, they have shut the door on your right to appeal.

Voters should understand the divide on the council, so they can vote to retain incumbents who want to open the door, and vote to remove incumbents who closed the door. Council members Michael Plunkett, Dave Orvis, and Steve Bernheim want to open the door. Council members Strom Peterson, D.J. Wilson, Peggy Olson, and Ron Wambolt voted to close it. Unfortunately, the "close door" council members have a one vote majority.

Here's how the candidates line up on this issue by race:

Michael Plunkett voted to keep your right to appeal unjust variances. We need his vote to restore your rights and open the door. As far as I can see, Priya has been silent on this issue, but she is endorsed by Peggy Olson and D.J. Wilson, who voted take your rights away and close the door.

Strom Peterson voted to take your rights away and close the door. Diane Buckshnis has publicly stated she will vote to restore your right to appeal land-use decisions. The distinction here is very well documented in Diane's candidate statement and website. You can also see Strom Peterson's vote in the council minutes of 6/2/09. I have previously blogged on this issue. (click here)

Adrienne and Lora both want to restore your rights and open the door. They defeated Ron Wambolt (who voted to close the door) in the primary. With regard to land-use appeals, both of these candidates have already done us a big favor.

So there it is. If we want to force the council to restore our rights to appeal unjust variances to the council, we need to elect Michael Plunkett, Diane Buckshnis, and either candidate for position 3.