Imagine that

A sharp-eyed reader alerted Maplewood Voices to this story.

Auburn, Washington is a city of about 50,000 in the Seattle metro region. In the April 14, 2008 Auburn-Reporter Robert Whale reports City council to get itself out of land use decisions *

In the future Auburn's contract hearing examiner, not the Auburn City Council, will hear land-use issues and render land-use decisions.

That was what the council's Committee of the Whole decided last week should happen. The full council will vote formally later.

Councilwoman Sue Singer said such a step is necessary because Auburn is growing, and asking council members to continue to sit in judgement on such land-use matters as short plats and variances and planned unit developments and subdivisions carries too many legal risks.

"Only small cities are doing this any more," Singer said. "The laws have changed and are much less protective of city councils and cities and land-use decisions. Society is also much more litigious. We just can't afford to take chances anymore. We need professionals to make the decisions. This is about fiduciary responsibility.

"... Since there are so few cities, especially of our size, in the state of Washington that use the council as quasi-judicial, we are sort of sitting ducks. We are just asking for it," Singer added. Under the new regime, appeals of the hearing examiner's decisions would be heard in Superior Court.

"Acting in a quasi-judicial manner has become a liability," said Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis. "The laws of the last decade have changed so much -- and not in favor of cities -- that city councils are getting get out of land use altogether."

Lewis added the city's insurance carrier got the ball rolling by notifying the city that as a "quasi-judicial city" its exposure was far higher than other cities whose councils were not acting in this capacity.

"I believe that until now the city council has wanted to keep its hand in this so it could immediately address the concerns of citizens," Lewis said.

If the city proceeds, it would need to revise its regulations, as there are 58 places scattered over the city code, from engineering and planning to parks and business licensing that reference the city council sitting in judgement on land-use matters.

"I won't miss making decisions about the height of people's fences," Singer said.

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* We don't normally quote entire articles, but fair-use makes allowance for educational purposes.