Amortization Provision Eliminating Lawful Nonconforming Uses
This legislation is intended "TO ELIMINATE UNLAWFUL NONCONFORMING MULTIFAMILY DWELLINGS, CREATE AN AMORTIZATION PROVISION ELIMINATING LAWFUL NONCONFORMING USES THAT EXIST DUE TO THE CONVERSION OF SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLINGS TO MULTIFAMILY DWELLINGS, AND ALLOW PROPERTY OWNERS TO RECOUP THEIR INVESTMENTS." The ultimate goal of this legislation is simply to take neighborhoods that have had high conversion rates of Single Family homes into Multi-Family Units and reverse those homes back to Single Family homes. As we go through some sections of this legislation, I will share some of my concerns.
Remember these next two paragraphs, which are explaining part of the reasoning behind this legislation.
WHEREAS, the Mayor and Council recognize that the City of Salisbury’s records concerning zoning enforcement do not always provide sufficient data to determine the scope of conversions to unlawful multifamily uses and, in many cases, there exists no adequate means of determining which residences have been unlawfully converted to multifamily residential use subject to prosecution under the zoning ordinance;
WHEREAS, the Mayor and Council have determined that it is difficult for enforcement officials to ascertain which residences located in a single-family zone are lawful uses, unlawful uses, or lawful nonconforming uses and that attempting to enforce the zoning code on a case-by-case basis in this context would place an undue burden on the taxpayer; It is important to understand their admittance of the difficulty of the government's inability to prove if a property is nonconforming.
