Court Opinion

ID: 9628475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:21:51.264302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:06.210960
License: Public Domain

Ringold, J.
(dissenting)—The extensive litigation resulting from the popularity of houseboat living and the finite number of moorage sites graphically illustrates the necessity of an appropriate exercise of the regulatory power of government in this area. In enacting the challenged ordinance, the Seattle City Council noted that
federal, state and local legislation concerning shorelands has had the effect of limiting the number of available floating home moorage sites and has resulted in a situation in which every available floating home moorage within the City is occupied, and there is little prospect that new floating home moorages will be developed; . . . [that] the ownership of a floating home requires a substantial investment, and a floating home is not readily mobile; and the required removal of a floating home from its moorage when no other moorage is readily available will destroy the value of such property except for its value as scrap; . . . [that] floating homes are a unique part of the environment and life of The City of Seattle, and some regulation of moorage relationships is needed to preserve floating homes and to maintain the public peace and safety in the floating home community . . .
Preamble, ordinance 109280.
The majority fails to apply the analysis necessary to determine whether economic regulations enacted by a legislative body are constitutional. Any ordinance enacted by a municipality in the exercise of its police powers is presumed constitutional and the party challenging it has the burden of overcoming this presumption. Granat v. Keasler, 99 Wn.2d 564, 568, 663 P.2d 830, cert. denied, 104 S. Ct. 549 (1983). An exercise of the police power is valid if it *712meets the judicial test of reasonableness. This test requires that (1) the regulation be reasonably necessary in the interest of the public health, safety, morals and the general welfare, (2) the regulation be substantially related to the evil sought to be cured, (3) the classes of persons regulated be reasonably related to the legitimate object of the legislation, and (4) the regulation not be unnecessarily prohibitory and confiscatory. Petstel, Inc. v. County of King, 77 Wn.2d 144, 154-55, 459 P.2d 937 (1969).
In Kennedy v. Seattle, 94 Wn.2d 376, 617 P.2d 713 (1980), the Supreme Court considered the validity of section 2(6)7 of ordinance 107012, the predecessor to the ordinance challenged here. Applying the Petstel test, the Kennedy court found: (1) The ordinance was reasonably necessary in the interest of public safety and welfare because it protected a "unique part of the environment and life of the City" and its benefits inured to all citizens of Seattle; (2) by restricting the moorage owner's right to evict a houseboat tenant, the ordinance was substantially related to the evil sought to be cured, destruction of the houseboat community; and (3) the class of persons regulated was appropriate because houseboat moorage lessors are sufficiently different from other landlords to warrant regulation of them as a separate class. Kennedy, at 381-82. The court held the ordinance unconstitutional, however, because it did not meet the fourth requirement of Petstel. The court reasoned that the absence of alternative moorage sites rendered eviction impossible and gave the houseboat owner *713a perpetual right to use the moorage. Thus, the ordinance amounted to a taking of the moorage owner's property. Kennedy, at 386. In Granat v. Keasler, supra, the court held section 3(6) of ordinance 109280 unconstitutional on the same ground.
The regulation challenged here is section 3(7) of ordinance 109280, as amended by ordinance 109630:
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section, it shall be lawful for a floating home moorage owner to demand the removal of a floating home from a moorage site by giving the floating home owner at least six months' written notice, when the purpose of such demand is to permit the moorage owner to use the moor-age site for a floating home which will be occupied by the moorage owner as his or her own residence; provided that such floating home moorage owner either:
(a) locates another lawful floating home moorage site within the city for the displaced floating home, or
(b) agrees in writing to compensate the displaced floating home owner for damages caused by the removal of such floating home from the moorage site; said damages not to exceed the fair market value of the floating home with a moorage site prior to eviction.
As in Kennedy, the ordinance meets the first three requirements of the Petstel test. The issue is whether the eviction restrictions in section 3(7) are so prohibitory or confiscatory as to constitute a taking or damaging of private property for public use in violation of Const. art. 1, § 16 (amend. 9) and the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution. As the court stated in Maple Leaf Invs., Inc. v. Department of Ecology, 88 Wn.2d 726, 731, 565 P.2d 1162 (1977):
The question essentially is one of social policy which requires the balancing of the public interest in regulating the use of private property against the interests of private landowners not to be encumbered by restrictions on the use of their property.
Unlike the eviction provisions struck down in Kennedy and Granat, section 3(7) does not deprive the moorage owner of any personal use of the moorage nor give the *714houseboat owner a perpetual right to use the moorage. It allows the moorage owner to evict a tenant when the owner plans to personally reside at the moorage8 and either locates another site for the tenant or pays damages caused by the eviction. This is not the only basis under the ordinance permitting evictions of a houseboat tenant. Subsections 1 through 5 permit eviction when the tenant fails to pay rent, fails to comply with the reasonable terms and conditions of the tenancy, or fails to abate a nuisance, and when the moorage owner intends to convert the property to commercial use.
The ordinance does impose burdens on moorage site owners not shared by other landowners. Considering the total requirements of the ordinance, however, section 3(7) is a legitimate and narrowly drawn restriction which balances the interests of both the moorage and houseboat owners. See Maple Leaf.
I would hold that the provisions of the ordinance as presently formulated are valid and would affirm the judgment.
Reconsideration denied December 5, 1984.

Section 2(6) permitted eviction when:
"The floating home owner is directed by the moorage owner to remove his or her home from its moorage site by a written notice given at least six months prior to the demanded date of removal where the purpose of such demand for removal is to permit the moorage owner to personally occupy such moorage site with a floating home to be used as such owner's residence, provided that such demand for removal is not contrary to any existing lease agreement between the moorage owner and such floating home owner and that such moorage owner locates for the displaced floating home owner another lawful moorage site within The City of Seattle." Kennedy v. Seattle, 94 Wn.2d 376, 385-86, 617 P.2d 713 (1980) (quoting ordinance 107012, § 2(6)).

The majority also invalidates this requirement as an unconstitutional taking. Lee claims that he does intend to personally occupy the moorage site and presented substantial evidence to support this claim. Therefore, the validity of this requirement is not before us. In any event, this requirement is entirely reasonable. It does no more than preclude the eviction of a tenant for the purpose of renting the property to another person or leaving the moorage site vacant. Given the paucity of available moorage sites and the substantial investment houseboat owners have in their floating homes, the City could legitimately conclude the public interest requires that this investment be protected and that all available sites be used for houseboat moorage.