Published on 04/17/2018 7:39 am
We often hear the expression, “grandfather rights,” when someone’s property is not affected by a land use change while nearly everyone else’s is. In legal parlance, land use attorneys know the term is “Nonconforming Use,” defined as a use “existing lawfully before the rezone of the surrounding area and continues or is ‘grandfathered’ after the rezone, provided the use is not thereafter interrupted for longer than a prescribed period, generally a year.” Land Use and Environmental Law, Ch. 24, Part Two, Washington Lawyer’s Practice Manual. Nonconforming use is not limited solely to zoning issues, but to changes in a large spectrum of administrative regulations.
“The right to continue a nonconforming use despite a zoning ordinance which prohibits such a use in the area is sometimes referred to as a ‘protected’ or ‘vested’ right. This right, however, only refers to the right not to have the use immediately terminated in the face
