I have to give Mayor Seng credit: it takes some cojones to veto the recent group home agreement, putting Lincoln at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and perhaps destroying Lincoln's current zoning restrictions on group homes. That doesn't mean I agree with her decision, though. In fact, I think she acted foolishly.
Lincoln's current group home restrictions -- they must be at least one-half mile apart if they house four to fifteen residents -- are unnecessarily restrictive. The settlement offered to Lincoln -- removing the distance restriction on homes with four or five residents -- was reasonable. True, it would have created a differentiation between the number of unrelated disabled persons able to live in one home (four or five) and the number of unrelated non-disabled persons able to live in one home (three). But I don't see that as a problem. The two restrictions serve different purposes, and therefore need not necessarily be identical.
With her veto, Mayor Seng has put Lincoln's zoning restrictions in a precarious position. Disabled persons are a protected class under the law, so Lincoln will have to make one heckuva case to justify the distance requirement. If the City fails, not only will we face hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees, we may lose a tremendous amount of local zoning control. Mayor Seng said her actions are pro-local control, and that's fantastic. But I fear that in the eyes of the courts she will make the City instead appear anti-disabled persons. That's not a position in which we want to find ourselves.
Comments
See what your friends and neighbors have to say about this.
I’ve always wondered how in the world they enforce that three non related persons per house rule? I’ve lived in a house with 6 other non related people (3 couples and 1 other person). I see lots of such houses in my area, because of the amount of college kids and huge houses for rent.
3 people has always seems like a little too small of a limit. I realize they don’t want people having boarding houses without a permit, but there’s a difference between a bunch of people renting a house cooperatively and one person serving as landlord to the others.
When you’re as poor as we were, living 7 to a house (it was a big house) can be the only way to be able to pay the bills, especially when you’re putting yourself through college.
Sorry I got off the subject.
I don’t agree with her veto either, from the little information I have, though I admit I am uneducated on zoning laws in general.
Share your thoughts with the community.
Commenting is no longer permitted on this post.