Council sends Rimrock case to court
Addressing housing
complaint a strategic move, Tussing says
The Montana Human Rights Bureau on Oct. 2 determined that "reasonable cause" existed to believe the City Council discriminated against Rimrock Foundation when it denied a special review for a residential treatment facility in the North Park neighborhood.
Directly to court
City Administrator Tina Volek said Friday that the city has the
right to move the case directly to District Court under a
section of Montana law that deals with housing-discrimination
cases.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is also
conducting an investigation to determine whether the city's
denial of Rimrock constituted housing discrimination. In March,
Rimrock also filed a civil suit in state District Court seeking
to overturn the council's action.
Volek said Harlan Krogh, a Billings attorney who is representing the city in the case, had suggested moving the dispute to District Court, which the council agreed to. The council took no formal vote during the closed meeting or afterward, and none was necessary, she said.
"We're making a decision to potentially save money in the long run because we wouldn't have to go through another proceeding," Tussing said Friday.
Tussing said City Attorney Brent Brooks told the council it didn't have to take a formal vote during a public meeting in this case.
Denied application
The City Council on Feb. 27 denied Rimrock Foundation's application for a special review, saying Rimrock's plan was inconsistent with the city's growth policy and the North Park Neighborhood Plan. Rimrock Foundation had proposed building a community treatment center at 1721 Eighth Ave. N.Rimrock applied for a special review to build a fourplex that included offices and a kitchen to serve more than eight adults seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.
Bill Lamdin, president of the Rimrock Foundation Board of Directors, said the city's justification for denying the special review is illegal. State law states specifically that the city may not impose conditions "based solely on compliance with the growth policy."
"I'm glad they committed themselves to a position that they will regret," Lamdin said.
In its news release, the city said Rimrock never explained why the fourplex building was crucial to its project rather than using duplexes.
The city contends that a duplex "could be absorbed more easily back into the neighborhood as residential rather than a fourplex if Rimrock Foundation ceased its operations."
"What we are asking is to construct a community residential facility that happened to be configured as a fourplex, which R6 zoning allows on special review," Lamdin said. "To say it's inconsistent is plain illegal. The City Council seems to think we have to prove they did it with an evil motive. All we have to do is establish that they did it for an impermissible reason."
Rimrock officials said that under the federal Fair Housing Act, people undergoing treatment for alcohol and drug addiction are considered disabled, along with other protected classes, such as people with mental or physical impairments or illnesses. By denying people who are in treatment a "reasonable accommodation" - in this case, a residential treatment center - the city committed housing discrimination, they said.
The city has denied that charge.
Katherine Kountz, chief of the Montana Human Rights Bureau, also said Tussing, the City Council and city staff will be required to attend a two-hour training on the Montana Human Rights Act and fair-housing provisions of the law. The city will also be required to develop a policy outlining how it will examine housing requests for people with disabilities.
Tussing said those steps won't be necessary now that the case will go directly to District Court.