Veto of borough housing regs stands

PALMER — After a failed attempt to override a mayoral veto, the latest change to Mat-Su Borough regulations on multi-family housing remains dead.

“I thought the veto message really didn’t give a valid reason for vetoing it,” Assemblyman Jim Sykes said in moving to override borough mayor Larry DeVilbiss’ veto. “I thought we were on our way to healing on this even though we don’t always agree.”

Assemblyman Jim Colver proposed the change, describing it as an attempt to close a loophole.

Developments of more than six units on a single lot require a permit. But that leaves a door open for developers to subdivide property into smaller lots with six units on each.

Colver’s change would have counted adjacent lots with the same owner as a single lot for the purposes of deciding whether the developer needs a permit. He said shortly after DeVilbiss’ veto that the lack of such a rule basically guts the ordinance.

“The veto should be overridden so that we can protect everyone’s quality of life and property values,” Colver said Tuesday.

To override a veto the assembly needs five of its seven members to vote in favor of the override.

Tuesday, they only mustered four votes — Sykes, Colver, Matthew Beck and Vern Halter.

Assemblymen Darcie Salmon, Steve Colligan and Ron Arvin voted to let the veto stand.

After it was all said and done, DeVilbiss said he thought Sykes was right — his veto memorandum wasn’t very good.

“After I went back and read that veto language I wondered if it would get past the attorneys,” he said. When it did he realized that “you don’t have to have much of a reason to issue a veto.”