'The Castle,' a private home, declared nuisance

'The Castle': City notifies owners that there have been too many parties and events there this year

BRAD SHANNON; The Olympian | • Published October 30, 2009

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OLYMPIA - "The Castle," a private home where legislators and lobbyists sometimes meet in Olympia's historic South Capitol neighborhood, has been declared a public nuisance by the city.

The city issued a code-violation notice to owners of the home at 1601 Sylvester St. this week. The notice letter says they have held more commercial events and parties in the brick, turret-graced home than the six allowed by city law per year, and that the home also functions as a business office.

“I’m not sure I have too much to say about it,” said T.K. Bentler, who co-owns the home with Anna Bentler. They are named in the letter, which gives them 10 days to “abate” the alleged nuisance.

“It’s a rental house. It’s rented out to folks I have lease agreements with,” he said. “One of the tenants has lived here since I owned the house.”

“I have an X on my head because I’m a lobbyist,” Bentler added, later expressing weariness at the way some neighbors keep watch on the home. “I guess I’m tired of people going through my underwear drawer in the South Capitol neighborhood.”

The city action is the latest in a continuing skirmish involving the South Capitol Neighborhood Association, the state, the city and people who have business related to state government on the campus. The encroachment on neighborhood streets by state office buildings and Capitol visitors’ cars also contribute to a broader dispute with the neighborhood association, which filed the complaint.

Steve Friddle, community services manager at the Department of Community Planning and Development, said the home’s owners have a history of violating the code.

The city fined Bentler three times in 2005 for lobbying-related activities at the home, and it had issues with previous “Castle” owners going back to 1995, he said.

The Bentlers can “abate” the nuisance and avoid fines by pledging not to have excessive numbers of parties or business activities that are beyond the limited home-occupation level, Friddle said. The Bentlers also could seek a special permit for extra parties through a city process that evaluates the effects on neighbors. They also could challenge the city’s finding, which would require paying a $1,000 fee for an appeal to a city hearings examiner, he said.

Typically, complaints against homeowners have been resolved short of an appeal or fines, which start at $103 and go up to $257 for a second violation and $513 for any others, Friddle said. “In most cases, it’s really an educational issue. … ‘OK, I promise to quit.’ And they do. Peace is restored,” Friddle said.

“The Castle” was used to host at least seven business-related parties this year – including a political fundraiser for an Olympia City Council race, said Jeanne Marie Thomas, vice president of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association, which filed the complaint.

Other events were for the state funeral directors’ association, Senate Republican Campaign Committee, Washington Association of Neighborhood Stores and something called My Salon, Friddle said.

Bentler’s lobbying firm represents more than a dozen clients, including auto dealers, funeral directors and appraisers.

Complaints crop up about home-occupation businesses in other areas of the city, but South Capitol is the only area that has caused this much concern, Friddle said. A proposal in 2006 to tighten the rules went through a planning review process but was dropped, he said.

“The problem is, the entire corner of the neighborhood has been converted to business use. That is the problem. It is not any longer residential,” South Capitol’s Thomas complained.

By her estimate, more than a half-dozen homes in the two-block area adjacent to the Capitol Campus are converted for nonresidential uses during legislative sessions, and some sit vacant at other times of the year.

Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688

bshannon@theolympian.com

www.theolympian.com/politicsblog