By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Round one: code violations.
Round two: zoning violations.
Lewis County officials continue in their attempts to shut down what they now call boarding houses, two residences in rural communities in which a handful of individuals recently released from prison live together.
[1]110 Nix Road
At issue is a three-bedroom home on Nix Road west of Chehalis where neighbors have said they’re afraid to let their grandchildren outside alone to play as well as a similar operation on the 200 block of Clark Road near Onalaska.
The county has filed a civil suit in Lewis County Superior Court asking a judge to declare the property owners are in violation of zoning rules by using the houses for anything other than single family residences.
Named in the complaint are Judy Chafin-Williams who leases the houses and acts as property manager for the tenants, Janice I. Thompson who owns the properties and Larry G. Gladsjo who is co-owner of the Clark Road property.
Sheriff Steve Mansfield has told a block watch group on Nix Road his goal is to remove the felons from their neighborhood, implementing a zero-tolerance policy for any incidents there and working with other arms of county government to discover if any code or zoning rules have been violated or even craft new ordinances.
Lewis County Commissioner Ron Averill said today the county has already looked to see if got they’ve got more members of the households than allowed for the particular septic systems.
“At one point they had about nine people and they were informed they were exceeding the septic limit and they had to get that down,” Averill said. “And I understand they did.”
In March, elected officials and other county employees spoke at a block watch meeting for Nix Road, sharing what they believed they could and could not do.
At the time, Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Carter said among the questions they were pondering is what exactly is meant by “single-family” dwellings. It’s not black and white, he said.
However, the complaint filed Wednesday focuses on where in unincorporated Lewis County single family residences are allowed and where they are not.
Both the Nix and Clark road homes are situated in zones called rural development districts. Multi-family residences are not allowed in those zones.
By contrast, there are areas of the county which were more densely populated before the state Growth Management Act was put into place – such as Onalaska, Packwood, Glenoma and similar communities – where multi-family uses are permitted.
The complaint is for an injunction, declaratory judgement and abatement of nuisance.
Part of the request is for a judge to set monetary penalties if the respondents fail to comply within 30 days of an order.
Chafin-Williams, who oversees the homes as well as similar houses in the cities of Centralia and Chehalis, describes her work as Christian-based, and the owners as people who got tired of renting to drug addicts.
The number one house rule is no drugs or alcohol, according to Chafin-Williams. These are simply people who need assistance getting back on their feet after they’ve done their time in prison, according to Chafin-Williams.
She said she was served notice today of the lawsuit.
“I do have an attorney, and we are going to fight it,” she said.
The property owners Thompson and Gladsjo couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
They have 20 days to file a response to the complaint.
•••
For background, read:
• “Discord on Nix Road: Newest arrivals unwelcome” from Saturday March 3, 2012, here [2]
• “The backstory: Intelligence gathering, possible fines and code enforcement tools ‘not normally used’ ” from Sunday March 4, 2012, here [3]