There are two businesses adjacent to Water Gardens, a gate construction company and a car repair or detailing company. Both are in violation of multiple Maple Valley city ordinances. Five of seven members and three staff of the Maple Valley City Council attended a meeting at Pat Hickey’s house in Water Gardens at 4:30pm on Monday, October 16th, 2023, to view the adjacent property in person, and to give the neighborhood committee an update.
Delegation from the City:
1. Sean P. Kelly, Mayor
2. Dana Parnello, Deputy Mayor
3. Syd Dawson, Council Member
4. Les Burberry, Council Member
5. Linda Johnson, Council Member
6. Laura Philpot, City Manager
7. Tawni Dalziel, Community Development & Public Works Director
8. Tommy Collins, Police Chief
Water Gardens Residents and Friends who were present:
1. Pat Hickey (met on her property)
2. Judy Cloyd
3. Glenn Gordon
4. Chris Christopherson
5. Steve Storms
6. Dan Pahlow
7. Roger Matthews
8. Dennis Kehus
9. John Graham (remotely)
10. Denise Wissbrod
At Pat Hickey’s place, looking over back fence, the Council was able to see clearly the large number of cars packed tightly, plus some serious debris and messiness. Also, the garage door to the gate construction business was open, and we could see the business inside. The Council walked around and looked at the business across the fence from several angles. Then Tawni and the Mayor made their presentations to the group.
There are two businesses adjacent to Water Gardens. First there is the AC Custom Metal Work which constructs metal fences and gates. The owner lives in Renton, and has two employees that work there but live off site. Secondly, the owner of the property has rented out the house, and the renters have built some sort of car repair or detail business. Both of these businesses are in violation of Maple Valley residential codes.
Tawni Dalziel’s Update
Thank you guys for allowing us from the city council to come and visit your property from this vantage point. So you guys came about a month ago to a city council meeting. I confirmed at that meeting that we are looking at code violations, three in particular for this adjacent property. We have met with them, and we now have a timeline on when they will have to come into compliance. The property owner has a business which manufactures gates. They have two employees, and in their business they use 100% of the space available for their business.
In addition to that business which has been going on since 2016, they have renters who have started a car business. We are not sure it is detailing or repair, either way, neither of those is allowed explicitly in our coding. Another thing that is not allowed is to have any inoperable vehicles on the property that are not enclosed in a garage or a canopy. So those three violations, we have given him [the owner] until November 3rd to get the inoperable vehicles out of sight. He [the owner] has contacted his tenants and let them know that’s the case. They either need to remove the vehicles, or he [the owner] is going to come in and remove them. He is in the process of evicting those tenants. Previously they had said they would be out of the property by September 30th, and they’re not, so this eviction process which to my understanding can go on for a number of months. They [the owner] have to get a hearing date in front of the judge to show why they are evicting the tenants. They have not gotten the hearing date, we don’t know when that date will be. We’ll send you an email when we know.
And then the gate business. We have made it clear to him [the owner], while having the gate business there is not necessarily illegal, what is illegal is how he is conducting that business. So, one, for a business on a residential lot, which it is, the whole idea is, you live there, you conduct your home based business, and you’re still a neighbor. So, he’s [the owner] not living there right now. Our code also requires him to have at most one employee who doesn’t live there, but right now he’s got two. He is also using more than 20% of the living space on the property for use of that gate business. Right now, he is using all 2000 square feet of the space for his shop, and he’s allowed 910 square feet. He said he does not think that he can comply, during that meeting that we had with him, so he’s got to actively look for another site. We gave him [the owner] 60 days, so that will be December 3rd, that he is to comply, either with those conditions, including the noise and the fumes: meet those conditions or be done with the location.
When that date comes around (December 3rd), the city will issue a notice of violation. There is an allowed a 14 day appeal period, and if he[the owner] is going to appeal for a hearing as owner, on what grounds I’m not sure because there is plenty of evidence that he has been violating our regulations, but we have to give him that. And then the city can absolutely move towards abatement, which is us going in there, doing what we need to do to stop the illegal business activities, and then cleaning up the property so that the city can collect the dollars expended to abate the property.
They [the owner] have until December 3rd to prove that they are not polluting the property and doing any of the other violations, and this is in writing. For 14 days after December 3rd the owner has the right to appeal to a hearing, and if they don’t prevail with the hearing examiner, then the city can move in and physically remove the items, and charge the for that.
Tawni opined that she didn’t think he [the owner] would appeal for he had no grounds for appeal. But if appealed, the line in the sand then would be December 17th or 18th (the 17th is a Sunday), and we should know if they appealed or not. If they do appeal, that appeal meeting is open, and property owners can come and testify at the appeal as well. In any case, the final outcome of these actions should be legally resolved by the January 8th, 2024 city council meeting.
To summarize:
If the renters move, that business is for sure out.
• The auto business date to comply is November 3rd.
• The gate business date to comply will be late December.
• The eviction is a third issue, and that is between the tenants and the owner.
Tawni: If we need more ammunition, they have had a soil test done, and the owner will have to “over-excavate” the soil.
Mayor Sean Kelly:
A letter from resident came in the other day, and that meant a lot to us, and we’ve been watching this for a while. The city manager and her team were out here in June and on a walkabout we got really educated on what’s going on. The council gave the city manager some direction. We’re going to ask the city manager to give us more of an update on November 13th, we’re going to waive her today, and give her a bit of a chance to give a formal update at the next council meeting [November 13th, 2023], so that all seven of us hear the same thing from the city manager’s office. I’ll be honest with you, this is going really quick compared to government stuff, in our experience, I’m just being honest. We’ve allocated a lot of resources here, and we’re all here to support you to make changes going forward, really fast. Now we have to follow state law, we’ve got to respect that process moving forward.
It's fantastic that all of Water Gardens community supports this, but honestly, if 100 residents showed up and said, “We don’t support any action against these businesses, at all”, if 100% of them came and said this, it wouldn’t matter. We, the Council as a whole, don’t support what is happening. We’ve heard it, and we’re taking action. This train has left the station, and it’s not stopping. You got our attention and you went about it in a really productive way. The government is working because the people got involved.
We’re going to ask the City Manager here for an update on November 13th, and then we have two meetings after that, and then we’re on recess a little bit (Christmas), and then we’ll have a final update at the January 8th, 2024 Council Meeting. At the January 8th meeting we will know what the legal outcomes are of all this, and so our attorneys will be at that meeting too.
Notes by Roger Matthews. Any errors in note taking are mine and mine alone. I got most of it right, but a few words were hard to understand.
COMMENT - Let’s all hope that this will be the demise of this business at this location. Thanks to all that have helped with this issue and also for the support of the residents of Water Gardens with this issue. John Graham