Letter to the Editor: Keep Nightclubs Out of My Neighborhood

Dear Mayor and City Council members,

I own a home at 10005 201st Ave. Pl. E. in Bonney Lake.  I am writing this letter to ask that the Council specifically exclude 20112 South Prairie Rd. from the Comprehensive Plan amendment assigning the land use designation “Midtown Core” to all Commercial properties in Midtown.  I also ask that Council keep the land use designation of this property, also known as the Bethel Family Fellowship, “Neighborhood Commercial.”

At a recent Planning Commission meeting the Commission voted 5 to 1 in favor of recommending that you adopt a Comprehensive Plan amendment that would change the Future Land Use Designation of the Bethel Family Fellowship property at 20112 South Prairie Rd. to “Midtown Core.” Apparently this is a new land use designation that the Planning Commission will be recommending to you. The proposed zoning to implement the Midtown Core land use designation is a new zoning designation titled “Midtown Core.”  In Planning Commission discussions so far, I understand that the uses proposed to be allowed in the Midtown Core are identical to those listed in the C-2 zoning.

C-2 zoning allows for, among other things: pool halls, ambulance services, liquor stores, drive-in restaurants, cocktail lounges, taverns, and veterinary clinics with no limitations on outside dog runs. Nightclubs by definition are also allowed in the C-2 zone. It appears that these uses will be recommended by the Planning Commission to be included in the Midtown Core zone and therefore also recommended to be allowed on the Bethel Family Fellowship property. This is simply not acceptable considering that Bethel directly abuts property zoned R-1 and developed with single-family homes.  

City Council minutes from September, 2005 indicate that the City Council had the same opportunity in that year – to change the land use designation and zoning of the Bethel Family Fellowship to C-2.  The Planning Commission at the time recommended that you do so. The physical environment at the time was identical to what it is now – there was an operating church on the property in question surrounded by the same single family homes and yards that are there now. In 2005, when faced with changing this property to C-2, Deputy Mayor Swatman made a motion not to accept the Planning Commission’s recommendation. Instead, he moved that this property specifically be zoned C-1 instead of C-2 and the reason he gave was that it should remain “compatible with the surrounding neighborhood.” Based on this argument, the City Council voted unanimously to approve Deputy Mayor Swatman’s motion.

Nothing has changed since 2005. C-1 zoning is still more compatible with the surrounding neighborhood than C-2 or the proposed Midtown Core. Pool halls, ambulance services, liquor stores, drive-in restaurants, cocktail lounges, taverns and nightclubs are not uses that are compatible with single-family homes. In two cases the FRONT yards of this property’s neighbors would directly face a nightclub, tavern or drive-thru restaurant if it were developed that way.

While I also understand that the Planning Commission is working on a landscaping code that would better buffer incompatible uses like this, there are no amount of trees or shrubs that could mitigate for the noises or nuisances associated with ambulances, taverns, liquor stores and nightclubs 20 feet from a family’s yard where their children play. In addition, the whole purpose of land use designation and zoning is to separate incompatible uses. The uses intended for R-1 and Midtown Core are not compatible.  

Please do not accept the recommendation of the Planning Commission. Keep the Bethel Family Fellowship “Neighborhood Commercial.”

Sincerely, William C. Stinson