[Vision2020] Complaints Filed Against Boarding Houses

[Craine Kit]

The fundamental question in this issue is why doesn’t the City  
enforce its own codes unless somebody complains? Moscow taxpayers  
spend (waste?) a fair chunk of change on an entire city department  
that is responsible for ensuring that properties are in compliance  
with the zoning and building codes. But that job doesn't seem to get  
done unless somebody files a complaint then prevails in the resulting  
war.

According to the city codes, a "Boarding House" is "a building in  
which not more than six (6) roomers, lodgers and/or boarders are  
housed or fed for compensation on a monthly or longer basis" (MCC  
4-11-9-B-9.) A "Roomer" is a "lodger or boarder occupying a rented  
room in PRIVATE  home or rooming [boarding] house" (MCC 4-11-9-B-79.)

Boarding houses are allowed as Permitted Principal Uses (i.e. by  
right) in the Agriculture/Forestry (AF) and Multiple Family  
Residential (R-4) Zoning Districts. In all other residential zoning  
districts, Boarding Houses are Conditional Uses and--according to  
city code--require a conditional use permit.

Even with a Conditional Use Permit, the full six boarders are only  
allowed in the Farm, Ranch, and Outdoor Recreation (FR) and the  
Suburban Residential (SR) Zoning Districts. The remaining districts  
have a limit to the number of bedrooms that may be rented. In the Low  
Density, Single Family Residential Zoning District (R-1) the limit is  
one, in the Moderate Density, Single Family Residential zone (R-2)  
the limit is two, and in the Medium Density Resident (R-3) district,  
the limit is three.

In last three districts, there is an additional requirement that  
"adequate off-street parking be provided and that the use will not  
change the character of the neighborhood."

The code is fairly straight forward--if you want to rent a room in  
your house and you don’t live in the AF or R-4 zoning districts, you  
are responsible for paying the fees and taking the time to get a  
conditional use permit. If you don’t, you are not in compliance with  
the code and the City should be addressing that--not sitting on their  
thumbs until somebody complains.

Of course, we can muddy these waters considerably by arguing  
semantics and religious persecution. But the fact remains that  
citizens should not have to be the zoning cops. We elect officials to  
write codes through a public process. We pay professionals to enforce  
those rules. If that system is failing, then our elected officials  
need to figure out why and fix it.

Kit Craine

On Apr 12, 2006, at 10:55 AM, Joan Opyr wrote:

> On Apr 12, 2006, at 8:46 AM, Gabriel Rench wrote:
>
>> This complaint list only people from Christ Church or Trinity. I  
>> graduated
>> from U of I and I can't tell you how many people I new that  
>> boarded with a
>> family that went to U of I (especially exchanged students). Every  
>> city I
>> have ever lived in I new of some one boarding with a family. This  
>> is not out
>> of the ordinary. Don you are doing a good job making us look like the
>> friendly neighbor and the Intoleristas a little more intolerant.   
>> Keep up
>> the good work soldier! Cheers!
>> Gabriel Rench
>
>
> You graduated from the U of I and you spell like this?  Go back,  
> young man, go back!  You seem to have slept through some classes.
>
> As Omie Drawhorn noted in her April 11th Daily News article, Moscow  
> City Code allows for one -- ONE -- boarder in a single-family  
> residence.  The owner of the house must apply for and receive a  
> conditional use permit, first proving that there is adequate  
> parking and that the addition of ONE boarder "will not disrupt the  
> character of the neighborhood."  Moscow code does not allow for  
> multiple boarders in a single family home, period.  Every city  
> you've ever lived in doesn't come into this argument, Gabe; this  
> isn't London, Beijing, or Timbuktu.  The only zoning ordinance that  
> applies here is Moscow zoning ordinance, and, quelle surprise, Doug  
> Wilson and his followers are once again in consistent and  
> deliberate violation of that ordinance.  The pattern here is not  
> one of religious persecution, no matter how hard you try to spin  
> this pathetic fallacy.  The pattern is that Christ Church and its  
> affiliates believe that they are above the law, hence the perpetual  
> demands for special treatment and the insistence on a blind eye in  
> enforcement.
>
> Is there not one, single, solitary thing that you can and will do  
> by the secular book?  Must you jump in line, thumb your noses, and  
> cut corners everywhere?  You call us intolerant; I call you  
> obnoxious.  All you need to do is obey the same laws as the rest of  
> us.  That's it.  No one wants to run you out of town; we simply ask  
> that you respect the same laws that we are obliged to respect, the  
> laws that make it possible for us all to be good neighbors.  You  
> are not good neighbors.  Good neighbors don't cram their houses  
> full of transient students, trampling on the lawns, the patience,  
> and the good will of those who live around them.  Good neighbors  
> don't take up retail parking to which they are not entitled and for  
> which they pay no taxes.  Good neighbors make an effort to play by  
> the rules; they don't shriek religious persecution when the rules  
> they've chosen to ignore are finally enforced.  Good neighbors  
> don't demand that the goal posts be moved because they've failed to  
> score the extra point.
>
> Just for the record, Gabe and others, when Chris Schlect of New St.  
> Andrews was told by the city in the year 2000 that New St. Andrews  
> could not continue to operate out of his living room, the city also  
> made mention of the fact that if NSA wanted to run student boarding  
> houses, they would need to apply for conditional use permits.  NSA  
> has had six years to get its house(s) in order.  Clearly, they have  
> chosen not to.  Why the pretense that these assorted zoning  
> complaints are a bolt from the blue?  I'm sorry to say you asked  
> for it, but you asked for it.
>
> Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
> www.joanopyr.com
>
> PS: Hands up all who pay taxes on their lavish boarding house incomes?
> PPS: Someone probably ought to look into that, but it won't be this  
> good soldier.
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