The Maple Valley Planning Commission has approved a proposal that would affect the sale of a non-operating business.

Due to the city’s comprehensive plan, many businesses are now considered non-conforming use, meaning they are a part of zoning which they would no longer be allowed to operate on.

Community Development Director Ty Peterson, however, explained that businesses which existed before the zoning code changes are not affected as long as they are in operation.

“The city allows you to continue that use in perpetuity,” he said. “But, should the use become abandoned..any new use has to conform new code.”

Currently, a business that is abandoned has a full year to reestablish the same type of business in order to retain the nonconforming rights. The Planning Commission has recommended an amendment that would decrease the time allowed to only six months, a proposal Peterson supports.

This proposal has met with criticism from business owners whose businesses are currently noncomforming.

At the commissions Oct. 5 meeting, Bob Castagna accused the proposal of “penalizing businesses.”

According to the Oct. 5 meeting minutes, Castagna stated “There are businesses that could be hurt by this. Now is not the time to do that.”

Peterson, however, said the proposal will help speed up code conformity.

“For starters, one is if a use isn’t viable for six months, I don’t know how someone can agree if it’s been abandoned for 12 months,” he said. “The question is the council charges me and the department to implement the comprehensive code. We zone a certain way. This essentially handicaps that ability. I’m having a hard time achieving this vision. It’s kind of a loophole. My point is that if you’re going perpetuate a non-conforming use, intentionally, by allowing code provisions that make it so it never has to be gotten rid of, you might as well allow it. You give me the mission of achieving the code, but I can’t do it with these kind of provisions.”

In the proposal draft to the City Council, Peterson wrote, “Changing the status from one year to six months will allow the City to conform to the adopted zoning standards at a faster rate. Most municipalities are between (three and six) months. Allowing nonconforming uses to continually reestablish is contrary to the zoning codes goals and intent.”

The comprehensive code defines abandonment as a business which has been discontinued, where there is no evidence of it in operation and it has been knowingly relinquished by the owner without any intention of transferring the property rights to another owner.