KTTH OPINION

Rantz: New law brings small cafes to every Washington neighborhood that wants one

Jan 14, 2025, 7:55 PM | Updated: Jan 15, 2025, 6:01 am

Voula's mural...

A vintage mural, dating to 1958 and depicting what was at that time, the proposed Ship Canal Bridge, decorates the main dining room at Voula’s Offshore Café on Lake Union. (Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

(Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

A law forcing neighborhoods to allow for small cafés, eateries or markets has garnered bipartisan support in Olympia.

House Bill 1175, sponsored by State Rep. Mark Klicker (R-Walla Walla) says a city or town must allow for small-scale neighborhood stores and cafes in any residential zone, though they cannot be bars, strip clubs or box stores. Local officials can regulate parking, hours of operation and maximum footage requirements but would not be able to deny a permit for a neighborhood store if the law passes as is.

With the number of Democrats joining Republicans in supporting the bill, it’s sure to pass. But should state lawmakers mandate a neighborhood accept a café it may not want?

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Should neighborhood cafés be mandated by state law?

Klicker said his bill was inspired by friends who were bothered that, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, their neighborhoods didn’t have anywhere nearby they could easily get to for essentials, like groceries, or spots they could meet friends, like cafés. He said they can help bring communities together.

“And in Europe, you will find it all over in neighborhoods. Small coffee shops or tea houses, or your little local pub,” Klicker explained on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

Klicker also sees the bill as a way to tackle public safety concerns. Neighborhoods with more foot traffic tend to see fewer incidents of crime because café-goers would be witnesses that criminals usually hope to avoid.

In the last legislative session, this bill struggled to gain traction. Klicker said there was concern it took too much power from local leaders, which is why he added language to the bill that provides cities and counties the right to regulate aspects of these businesses as they see fit.

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What if a neighborhood doesn’t want the cafés?

The intention of mandating cafés is a good one. But the bill, should it become law, inspires reasonable concerns about the role of the state government in defining neighborhoods with cafés that statewide lawmakers will never even visit.

A neighborhood in Seattle, Auburn or Richland may love the idea of neighborhood cafés. But others in Spokane, Everett or Vancouver may not. What happens if a neighborhood doesn’t actually want a café, but a business owner pushes forward anyway, hoping they’ll change their minds once it’s opened? Under the bill, local officials and residents would have no say. And the bill does not explicitly limit the number of cafés a neighborhood could host.

While the marketplace would ultimately decide the cafe’s fate, if neighbors truly don’t want it, they’ll have to put up with unnecessary construction noises and traffic interruptions.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on XInstagramYouTube and Facebook.

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Rantz: New law brings small cafes to every Washington neighborhood that wants one