The Woodland City Council doesn’t want to have the final say regarding appeals to decisions on land use as councilors cited concerns over the legal jeopardy the city could face if a decision goes to court.
During a Dec. 20 meeting, the council voted 6-0 on the first reading of an ordinance that would change the land use appeal process on developments in the city. Currently, an appeal of the decision of a third-party hearings examiner on a development application goes before the city council to approve or deny. The change on the table puts the appeal process back in the hands of the hearings examiner, who would consider the appeal argument’s additional information.
The ordinance came to fruition after councilors questioned their judicial authority on matters of land use. The issue came to light during an appeal of a hearings examiner’s approval of a 67-lot recreational vehicle park planned for 3.69 acres on Belmont Loop.
The council ultimately denied the appeal in August, though not without sympathy to the appellants, who argued the park was a bad fit given nearby businesses.
“As a policymaker I agree with the people who were appealing, but that’s not the question that came before us,” Councilor Benjamin Fredricks said during a Dec. 6 workshop on the change. Fredricks said the issue at hand during the appeal hearing was purely legal and was not something the city’s legislative authority should consider.
“City council are policymakers and when we are hearing these matters … we’re being asked whether or not a process was followed to the letter of the law,” Fredricks said.
City Attorney Frank Randolph said it was “very unfortunate” the city was put in the position. He said if the council did not apply the law correctly, a court could impose sanctions on them for the misapplication.
Woodland Community Development Director Travis Goddard said the current process — which councilors want to change — likely was included when the code was first adopted by the city.
“The council probably felt that not all cases are the same, and so there’s some stuff they trust staff to do, and there’s some stuff they trust the hearing examiner to do, and there’s some stuff that they don’t trust anybody to do except for the seven elected councilmembers,” Goddard said.
Goddard said he had only seen the city address a handful of appeals in the past, but development applicants have become more savvy on the code and have invested more into projects, making them more likely to push through an unfavorable decision with an appeal.
Goddard added staff have also become more savvy with the code, as they reject projects earlier on in the process.
“If it’s something that I would never support, I tell them over the counter. I don’t wait for them to invest money and (then) tell them no,” Goddard said.
Fredricks said he researched the makeup of the city council at the time of the initial code approval around 1981. He said two of the five members owned land and worked with each other to provide favorable zone changes to benefit each other’s interests.
“That’s kind of how it worked back in those days,” Fredricks said. “In this case it’s all about control. They wanted to control the process.”
The code changes also involve removing the city council from approval of subdivisions, Goddard said. He said the council could face the same legal issues in that approval process.
Goddard said he has only seen one subdivision approval come up for consideration in the four years he has been with the city.
The ordinance will go before the council for a second and final reading during its Jan. 3 meeting.
