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Home My WebLink AboutItem 60 - 09-23-2020 - DESC - Reply ISO Mtn for ReconsiderationITEM NO. 60 HEX-000723 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER’S REPLY IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION -- 1 NORTHWEST RESOURCE LAW PLLC 101 Yesler Way, Suite 205 Seattle, WA 98104 206.971.1564 BEFORE THE CITY OF RENTON COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN RE THE MATTER OF THE APPEAL BY: RENTON HOTEL INVESTORS, LLC, DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER, KING COUNTY, Appellants. No. CODE-20-000321 DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER’S REPLY IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION DESC currently uses the Renton Red Lion to temporarily house people who cannot reside at DESC’s Seattle shelter because of the risk of spread of COVID-19. The Final Decision correctly held that this use is a “hotel” use under the Renton Municipal Code, just as it would be a hotel use if people were staying there because they had been driven from their homes by a wildfire, earthquake, storm, or other disaster. See Final Decision, 12. The Final Decision also correctly held that DESC’s delivery of food to its clients’ rooms to discourage them from going out into the community, increasing the risk of spreading COVID-19, does not keep DESC’s use from being a hotel use, any more than delivery of room service is inconsistent with a hotel use in any case. Id. at 14. The Final Decision incorrectly determined, however, that what the Final Decision called the “day use” of the Red Lion—DESC’s case management and crisis intervention services—was a “social service use,” which could only be permitted if DESC HEX-000724 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER’S REPLY IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION -- 2 NORTHWEST RESOURCE LAW PLLC 101 Yesler Way, Suite 205 Seattle, WA 98104 206.971.1564 pursued an unclassified use interpretation and then obtained a conditional use permit, necessarily a discretionary decision by the City. DESC submitted its Motion for Reconsideration and the Declaration of Daniel Malone in Support of [Its] Motion for Reconsideration to make two points. First, the services provided at the Renton Red Lion are not open to members of the public at large, but only to clients of DESC who are being temporarily housed at the Red Lion. The impacts (if any) of these services are therefore much more limited than if members of the public were brought to the property to receive the services. Second, and critically, the services are essential in light of the disabilities of DESC’s clients. DESC cannot operate its temporary shelter at the Renton Red Lion—and implement the Health Officer’s order—without providing these necessary services. A determination that DESC cannot provide these services, or cannot provide them without a conditional use permit which the City would have discretion to deny, would preclude DESC from de-intensifying its shelter and thereby meeting the King County Health Officer’s objectives. The City also argues that “DESC submits no evidence as to what prevents it from relocating the residents of its shelter to a legally-zoned location where its residents can live safely and long-term . . . .” City of Renton’s Resp. Br., 2. To the contrary, King County provided detailed evidence that the Renton Red Lion was the only location that King County could identify that was suitable for temporary relocation of DESC’s shelter. See Declaration of Bryan Hague. The Final Decision held that “[t]he County has clearly taken an extensive effort in finding a suitable location for its shelter and has reasonably concluded that other sites are not reasonably available.” Final Decision, 8. The City has no zone that allows siting of a social service organization without a hearing examiner conditional use permit. See RMC 4-2-060.G. Therefore, assuming the Final Decision is correct that DESC requires an unclassified use interpretation and a conditional use permit, “evidence” regarding relocation to a “legally-zoned location” is not only irrelevant, but nonexistent. HEX-000725 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER’S REPLY IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION -- 3 NORTHWEST RESOURCE LAW PLLC 101 Yesler Way, Suite 205 Seattle, WA 98104 206.971.1564 The City has made it clear that it will do everything it can to preclude the permitting of DESC’s use of the Renton Red Lion as a temporary shelter for individuals displaced from DESC’s main shelter by the pandemic. Its Motion for Clarification asks the Examiner to state that the portions of the Final Decision regarding the unclassified use interpretation and the relationship between the City’s zoning code and the power of the King County Health Officer in a pandemic are dicta – something the City can ignore. Its response to DESC’s Motion for Reconsideration suggests that it will attempt to require a showing that there is no place else that DESC’s shelter could go as a precondition of finding that it is an unclassified use. But the Final Decision should not have sent DESC down that winding path. In the absence of the ability to provide the services that the Final Decision describes as the “day use” of the Red Lion, which are essential to address the disabilities of its clients, DESC cannot temporarily house its clients at the Red Lion, and DESC’s hotel use for those people who have been driven from its Seattle shelter will be impossible. That would clearly thwart the Health Officer’s efforts to de-intensify the shelter. DESC respectfully asks that the Final Decision be reconsidered. DATED this 23rd day of September, 2020. NORTHWEST RESOURCE LAW PLLC / s/ Elaine L. Spencer________________ Elaine L. Spencer, WSBA #6963 espencer@nwresourcelaw.com 206.971.1569 Lisa Chaiet Rahman, WSBA #51531 lrahman@nwresourcelaw.com 206.971.1568 Attorneys for Downtown Emergency Service Center HEX-000726 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER’S REPLY IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION -- 4 NORTHWEST RESOURCE LAW PLLC 101 Yesler Way, Suite 205 Seattle, WA 98104 206.971.1564 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I declare under penalty of the perjury under the laws of the State of Washington that I caused the foregoing documents to be electronically filed with the Hearing Examiner for the City of Renton by email to cityclerk@rentonwa.gov, as well as served upon the following parties at the email address listed below: Sumeer Singla, WSBA #32852 WILLIAMS KASTNER & GIBBS PLLC 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 Attorney for Renton Hotel Investors, LLC ssingla@williamskastner.com Shane Moloney, WSBA #35433 Leslie C. Clark, WSBA #36164 Alex Tuttle, WSBA #41743 CITY OF RENTON 1055 S. Grady Way Renton, WA 98057 Attorneys for City of Renton smoloney@rentonwa.gov lclark@rentonwa.gov atuttle@rentonwa.gov srary@rentonwa.gov Howard Schneiderman, WSBA #19252 Youn-Jung Kim, WSBA #23516 Lena Madden, WSBA # 41246 DANIEL T. SATTERBERG, King County Prosecuting Attorney W400 King County Courthouse 516 Third Avenue Seattle, Washington 98104 Attorneys for King County howard.schneiderman@kingcounty.gov jina.kim@kingcounty.gov lena.madden@kingcounty.gov Chip Vincent, Administrator Dept. of Community & Economic Development 1055 South Grady Way Renton, WA 98057 cvincent@rentonwa.gov Phil Olbrechts, Hearing Examiner Renton City Hall – 7th Floor 1055 S. Grady Way Renton WA 98057 olbrechtslaw@gmail.com HEX-000727 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER’S REPLY IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION -- 5 NORTHWEST RESOURCE LAW PLLC 101 Yesler Way, Suite 205 Seattle, WA 98104 206.971.1564 DATED this 23rd day of September, 2020, in Seattle, Washington. s/Eliza Hinkes Eliza Hinkes, Paralegal HEX-000728