A report on whether to change Aberdeen’s zoning code to restrict future social service locations has been amended and sent to the city’s planning commission, which will analyze the pros and cons of the issue and report back to the City Council.
Council member Dee Anne Shaw requested the amendment to ensure that the report take a more neutral tone, asking the planning commission to look at the pros and cons of the ordinance instead of simply asking for a recommendation for the new laws. At last week’s council meeting, a couple of council members took issue with the proposed zoning change, but it was a unanimous vote to send the amended report to the commission for review.
At the Aberdeen City Council’s public safety committee meeting Feb. 28, council member Karen Rowe presented an example ordinance from Vancouver, Washington, that was repealed last December and had restricted what areas could have “human services facilities” such as food banks, shelters and transitional housing sites. Rowe said she and the city’s Downtown Parking and Business Improvement Committee wants the city to look into adding a similar ordinance in Aberdeen.
The Vancouver ordinance was repealed by unanimous vote after the city attorney’s office raised concerns it violated laws that prohibit discrimination against people based on their disabilities or family status. Vancouver was also concerned the ordinance could result in potential legal action.
During last week’s meeting in Aberdeen, council Member Kathi Prieto criticized the ordinance, specifically one section of Vancouver’s previous law that made approval criteria for a human services facility to not be “significantly detrimental to the health, safety or general welfare of persons residing or working in the neighborhood,” and for it to not be detrimental to “the property or improvements in the neighborhood or to the general welfare of the city.”
Prieto elaborated and said she feels the ordinance is a way to push people who use these services out of the way so the city doesn’t have to deal with them.
“I can’t even explain the extent of how many people these services help, and I feel we’re trying to preclude them in an area that puts them away from everyone being able to see them or deal with them,” said Prieto. “A lot more people use these services than just people on the street. We’ve got the elderly, families that are laid off trying to get their lives back together, so many different situations in different brackets. I’m having a hard time with this.”
In the public comment period, Wil Russoul, director of the Aberdeen Revitalization Movement, spoke in favor of looking into the ordinance, and said it’s more respectful to people who use social services if they don’t have to wait in line for them on the main streets.
“Respect of somebody who’s vulnerable is you not putting them on display on a highway standing in line for people to watch them because they have needs situations,” said Russoul. “I have been in that line. It’s not fair.”
The zoning changes will now be considered by the planning commission to report back on how it might look in Aberdeen.
