Think a neighbor is shirking land-use rules? Thurston County tries to clarify process
Residents near the Faith Harvest Helpers property on Case Road have been submitting complaints about the religious organization’s development since 2016, according to county documents. At recent Board of County Commissioner meetings, neighbors have shared their concerns about apparent ongoing land-use violations on the property and what feels like a lack of action from the county.
“The lack of response to our concerns and the neighbors’ concerns by the county is unacceptable and smacks of an attempt to prevent transparency,” a neighbor testified during public comment last week.
That neighbor also asked for an “explicit recounting from the county” on a plan of action to enforce codes on the property. It appears the county is trying to grant that request.
Officials from the county’s Community Planning & Economic Development (CPED) Department floated a new tool for situations like this at a Board of County Commissioners meeting this week.
Joshua Cummings, director of CPED, said his department is under direction to help applicants do what they want with their land within code and ordinance. Meanwhile, its compliance investigation division might be looking into complaints about that same property.
“It’s these two paths where we’re serving the applicant as the citizen, and we’re serving the neighbors that are providing complaints on a certain property,” Cummings said. “It’s frustrating, it’s confusing, but it’s part of our civil society.”
Cummings said the department is trying to provide a timeline of actions that have been taken by the county, violations under review, and violations that are being addressed. One tool to that end is a “case summary” document, which Development Services Manager Brett Bures and the compliance team has been developing, according to Cummings.
The first case for which they’re deploying this “case summary” tool: Faith Harvest Helpers. The idea is to create a sort of template, Cummings said in the commissioners meeting. It’s not clear how often a “case summary” like this may be used, and Cummings called it a work in progress.
“The goal of this document is to provide a clear and concise accounting in plain-speak of the actions, timelines, and violations that a property may have,” Cummings wrote in an email to The Olympian. He said that becomes important in cases where applicants and citizens making complaints intersect, in order to reduce confusion and “increase responsiveness.”
The “case summary” for the Faith Harvest Helpers development lists violations by department, a timeline of complaints, responses, and ongoing investigations, a map marking where the 25 violations on the property have been noted, and possible next steps.
Cummings provided the commissioners with a copy of the document, which he said is also available to the public upon request.
“Even though it’s in draft form, we would send it to a private citizen,” Cummings told The Olympian. “This is information I think the citizens deserve to have.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
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