City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner

The City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner heard an appeal from Nathan Gerber challenging the impound of his 2004 Toyota RAV4 from the 200 block of North Forest Street on February 25, 2025. The vehicle was towed from a residential parking zone after being found without a visible parking permit or visitor pass displayed. The case highlights ongoing tensions between the city's residential parking enforcement and the practical challenges faced by college-age renters in multi-unit housing near Western Washington University. Gerber's residence at 225 North Forest Street houses 10 people across four separate units but is only allocated four parking permits and four visitor passes under city code. Parking Code Compliance Officer Stephanie Mays testified that the city had received seven complaints about parking violations on three streets in the area between January 23 and February 19, 2025. Staff responded five times before scheduling a coordinated tow operation for February 25 that targeted more than 10 vehicles. Gerber's vehicle had received one prior ticket on February 19 before being towed. Gerber acknowledged his car was legally subject to towing but argued the enforcement was excessive and that the city had failed to provide adequate tools for residents to demonstrate their legitimacy. He testified that his visitor pass had fallen to the floor of his vehicle during rainy weather the night before and he forgot to redisplay it. Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice will issue a written decision by March 24, 2025.

**Primary Issue:** Appeal of vehicle impound validity - **Case Status:** Under advisement, decision due March 24, 2025 - **Legal Standard:** Appellant bears burden of proof to challenge impound validity - **City's Position:** Vehicle was legally towed from marked tow-away zone without valid permit displayed - **Appellant's Position:** Enforcement was excessive and city failed to provide adequate permit allocation **Evidence Admitted:** - Exhibit 1: Impound appeal request with payment receipt - Exhibit 2: Email from Stephanie Mays with photographs A-H of vehicle and documents - Exhibit 3: Hearing confirmation email - Exhibit 4: Statement from Nathan Gerber - Exhibit 4A: Residential lease - Exhibit 5A: Heston Towing fee rate sheet - Exhibit 5B: Heston Towing invoice

**Nathan Gerber, on accepting responsibility:** "The city and the Tow Company were well within their rights to tow my car. There was a sign, there was a towway zone. My pass fell down and was not visible where it should have been." **Nathan Gerber, on systemic unfairness:** "I believe this this rule that that the city has created is unfairly targeting our house... there's a total of 10 people living in that dwelling with 4 visitor passes allowed." **Stephanie Mays, on complaint-driven enforcement:** "We wouldn't be out there if we weren't getting complaints. This is not a normal area that we typically patrol." **Stephanie Mays, on tow-away authority:** "Any vehicle, technically in violation during that can be towed. The reason we visit out there is to remind folks to either get their permits or to get their passes up before we take the step to tow vehicles." **Sharon Rice, on policy change authority:** "I don't have any authority to challenge or change the city code, and so I just want to express to you that your idea that perhaps these comments are better aimed at city council? I would agree with that." **Nathan Gerber, on broader city goals:** "Part of Bellingham seems to be wanting to be a walkable city, and then they set a bunch of young people up, not feeling safe, leaving their car at home. And then they're they're driving more. It seems like it's against the goals of the city of Bellingham."

## Meeting Overview On March 10, 2025, Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice convened an afternoon vehicle impound appeal hearing via Zoom for the City of Bellingham. Rice, an attorney who provides hearing examiner services to Bellingham and approximately nine other municipalities, presided over Case HE 25-VI-0003, filed by Nathan Gerber to appeal the impoundment of his 2004 Toyota RAV4. The case centered on a fundamental tension in university-adjacent neighborhoods: how parking enforcement affects students living in converted housing where multiple people share limited parking permits. The hearing revealed a complex situation involving a house at 225 North Forest Street that had been divided into four separate units, housing ten people total with only four parking permits and four visitor passes between them all. What began as a routine parking violation had evolved into a broader question about whether current city policies adequately serve residents of unconventional housing arrangements near Western Washington University. ## The Parking Enforcement Action Stephanie Mays, Parking Code Compliance Officer II, opened the city's case by describing a pattern of complaints that had drawn enforcement attention to the Cedar, North Forest, and North Garden Street area. Between January 23 and February 19, 2025, the city had received seven separate complaints from area residents about parking violations in the residential permit zone covering the 300-400 block of Cedar Street, 200-400 blocks of North Forest Street, and 200-300 block of North Garden Street. "Parking staff responded 5 times during that month," Mays testified, visiting on January 24, January 31, February 12, and February 19. The enforcement approach was deliberately graduated: "The reason we visit out there is to remind folks to either get their permits or to get their passes up before we take the step to tow vehicles. So we're not just going out there on the first complaint and removing them." By February 19, enforcement had escalated. Mays explained: "After the February 19th date, parking myself scheduled tow trucks to arrive for February 25th. We called in on February 24th scheduled the tow trucks because we were looking at 10 plus vehicles that we were looking to impound, so we wanted to make sure we had enough trucks." Gerber's vehicle was among those targeted on February 25. It had received one prior ticket on February 19 "when we were in the area," making the impoundment his second parking infraction. The Toyota RAV4 was towed from the 200 block of North Forest Street by Heston Towing because it "didn't have a valid permit, or a visible hang tag from the rearview mirror, which is a visitor's pass." Mays methodically walked through her photographic evidence, explaining the city's documentation process: "We do a full 360 of the vehicle to make sure that there's no damages on or before, plus it gives us a good view of the windshield and the dash to show that there's no visitor pass or permit on it." The photographs showed no permit sticker on the rear bumper or window, and no visitor pass hanging from the rearview mirror or visible on the dashboard. Most significantly for the case, photo number 5 showed "where the vehicle was parked in relation to the sign itself" — approximately six to eight feet in front of a tow-away zone sign that clearly marked the area and established the enforcement hours. ## Nathan Gerber's Defense Nathan Gerber approached his appeal with a mix of accountability and frustration. "The city and the tow company were well within their rights to tow my car," he acknowledged at the outset. "There was a sign, there was a tow-away zone. My pass fell down and was not visible where it should have been." But Gerber argued he had been making good-faith efforts to comply ever since an earlier incident in December when both his girlfriend's car and his roommate's truck were towed after being parked for just over an hour. "Since then we have known to take the parking regulations pretty seriously, and that they will tow," he testified. His February 25 violation, Gerber explained, resulted from a driving safety decision gone wrong. "The night before, it was really rainy. The parking emblem is about probably like 7 or 8 inches long. It hangs in my mirror. It takes up a decent amount of space. I was creating a rather large, like area that I couldn't see out the window, so I simply ripped it off, threw on my floor when I was driving on the I-5 coming home from Costco fairly late." Arriving home around 8 or 9 p.m. in heavy rain, Gerber said he "just forgot to put it back up as I was running inside." The next morning he walked to campus, returning in the afternoon to discover his car missing. What particularly frustrated Gerber was the rapid escalation from ticket to tow: "What I argue is that I was not given proper time to prove that I can park there, or, in fact, live there. I was ticketed and then towed seemingly right away." He had researched state practices and found that "normal protocol for a parking job that is not hazardous is to issue 4 tickets, and if those aren't responded to, then tow." Gerber had made multiple attempts to obtain a permanent parking permit sticker to avoid future visitor pass mishaps. "I have read the code made phone calls to the public works departments and the finance department in efforts to get myself a sticker, because these mistakes were slowly costing me $30 at a time," he testified. "What we were told, is to change the law, and that we can't get a sticker." ## The Housing Complexity The most compelling aspect of Gerber's case emerged when he described the living situation at 225 North Forest Street. While the address had been allocated four parking permits and four visitor passes — double the standard two permits per residence — the reality was far more complex. "There's a total of 10 people living in that dwelling with 4 visitor passes allowed," Gerber testified. His unit alone housed three people with three vehicles. "One of us moved her vehicle all the way to her parents house many miles away across the city. Because she got towed once, and we only have a proper permutation for 2 vehicles." The upstairs unit had three more residents with their own vehicles, while two studio apartments downstairs each housed couples. "The one directly under me is a guy named Kendall and his girlfriend, and then same with the art studios, a guy and a girl who lived there." Gerber argued this created an inherently unfair situation: "All our houses next door to us. They all have driveways, they, if they have, like a teenager at home, they can use one of their 2 passes. Even if they have other people living with them, they can get an extra pass like what they did for our house, and make an exception, but for our dwelling, I believe 10 people and 4 passes is... sets us up for a unsuccessful situation." The demographics compounded the problem: "We're all college kids, or mostly young and not affluent. And so it sets us up for a unsuccessful thing here." Most poignantly, Gerber described how enforcement had changed his housemates' behavior: "I know Zoe moved her car, because now she doesn't feel safe, having her car at home, and part of Bellingham seems to be wanting to be a walkable city, and then they set a bunch of young people up, not feeling safe, leaving their car at home. And then they're they're driving more. It seems like it's against the goals of the city of Bellingham." ## The City's System and Limitations Mays clarified several important aspects of how Bellingham's residential parking permit system actually works. The address at 225 North Forest had indeed received special treatment: "The city, from my understanding, has made the exception wants to give each individual apartment within that house its own permit. So we've increased it from 2 to 4 already." However, issuing additional permits beyond that number required a formal process: "The only time that permits or the stickers can be issued above that is by the owner of the residence or the property manager of that location. And it's a permit process that has to go through the Director of Public Works, and that is laid out in title 11, chapter 38, of the Bellingham Municipal code." The system had evolved to include automated enforcement capabilities. "We do have a virtual system as well. So like the plate has to be reported because we can use our automated license plate readers to scan the plates to see if a permit is valid," Mays explained. This meant residents with permanent permits no longer needed physical stickers — their license plates were simply entered into the system. But visitor passes remained analog by design: "The visitor permits do not go into the system because they are for temporary use. So that's why we asked, and have it in the terms that they're hung from the rear view mirror. Because we're not going to go poking around people's cars looking inside, because that's weird." Mays emphasized that enforcement in this area was complaint-driven, not routine patrol: "We wouldn't be out there if we weren't getting complaints. This is not a normal area that we typically patrol. We're usually downtown Bellingham or in Fairhaven doing the metered parking spaces." The complaints were ongoing — "We even got to today, while I was sitting here in the office for that area, so we'll be out there again here shortly." ## The Legal Framework Hearing Examiner Rice carefully walked through the relevant code sections during the hearing. Bellingham Municipal Code 11.38.010 specifies that "a residential parking permit shall only be valid if displayed upon the rear bumper on the left hand side of the residence vehicle, or in the lower left hand corner of the rear window of the residence vehicle." The tow-away authority came from BMC 11.33.140: "No person shall stop, stand, or park a vehicle in a place marked as a tow away zone during the hours when the provisions applicable to such zone are in effect." Since the residential zone was enforced "Monday through Friday, except holidays 8 to 5," any vehicle in violation during those hours could legally be towed. Rice explored whether alternative visitor pass placement might solve the visibility problem Gerber described. When she asked whether placing the pass on the dashboard rather than the floor would be acceptable, Mays confirmed: "Yeah, that's totally fine." However, the pass needed to be fully readable: "If any part of it's obstructed. You can only park within one block of where the visitor pass is issued, so we have to be able to see the whole thing." ## Jurisdictional Boundaries Perhaps the most significant moment came when Rice directly addressed the limitations of her authority. While acknowledging Gerber's concerns about policy fairness, she explained: "As the city's hearing examiner, I don't have any authority to challenge or change the city code, and so I just want to express to you that your idea that perhaps these comments are better aimed at city council? I would agree with that." Rice encouraged direct citizen engagement: "I would encourage you if you're if you feel so motivated, to take an opportunity to email or to speak to city council, to let them know how this affects you, because I tell them every year my experience with impound appeals, and I think, if they heard from our residents that that would support my comments about the difficulties with impound appeals." She promised to include Gerber's concerns in her annual reporting: "It's my practice to keep a running list of suggestions and comments for council, and I always include comments about impound appeals in my annual report to the city council, and so I will make a note about the your feelings, about the particular uniqueness of this residence, and how that impacts residents in these apartments in your building." But Rice emphasized the greater impact of direct citizen advocacy: "I encourage you, because I think it has as much or bigger impact on council, if they hear from residents rather than from from their hired people." ## Closing & What's Ahead The hearing concluded at 1:34 p.m. with Rice closing the record after confirming neither party had additional evidence to submit. She committed to issuing her written decision no later than March 24, 2025, noting that while she would consider all evidence presented, her authority was limited to determining whether the impound was legally valid under existing city code. Gerber confirmed he was already exploring the council route: "We've been looking into that route and started to so prepare some things." The case captured a fundamental challenge facing university towns: how parking policies designed for traditional single-family neighborhoods adapt to the reality of higher-density student housing. While the city had already made accommodation by doubling the normal permit allocation for 225 North Forest Street, the mathematics remained stark — ten residents competing for eight parking permissions in a system designed around the assumption that most residents would be families with one or two cars. Rice's hearing provided both parties a full airing of their positions, but the real resolution likely lies ahead in potential policy discussions at the council level, where the broader questions of housing density, transportation equity, and neighborhood character will ultimately be decided.

## MODULE S1: STUDY GUIDE **Meeting ID:** BEL-HEX-2025-03-10 ### Meeting Overview The Bellingham Hearing Examiner conducted a vehicle impound appeal hearing on March 10, 2025, regarding Nathan Gerber's appeal of the impound of his 2004 Toyota RAV4 from North Forest Street on February 25, 2025. ### Key Terms and Concepts **Hearing Examiner:** An independent attorney who conducts quasi-judicial hearings for the city, reviewing appeals and making legally binding decisions on matters like parking violations and impounds. **Residential Parking Zone:** A designated area where only residents with valid permits or visitors with visible passes can park during specified hours (8 AM to 5 PM, Monday-Friday in this case). **Visitor Pass:** A temporary parking permit that must be hung from the rearview mirror or placed on the dashboard, allowing non-residents to park in residential zones for short periods. **Residential Parking Permit:** A sticker that goes on the rear bumper or rear window of a vehicle, registered to a specific address and license plate in the city's system. **Tow Away Zone:** An area where vehicles can be immediately impounded if parked in violation of posted restrictions during enforcement hours. **Civil Penalty:** The standard fine for parking violations, typically $30, separate from towing and storage costs. **Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR):** Technology used by parking enforcement to scan license plates and check them against the database of valid permits. **Appellant:** The person appealing a city decision - in this case, Nathan Gerber challenging the validity of his vehicle impound. ### Key People at This Meeting | Name | Role / Affiliation | |---|---| | Sharon Rice | Hearing Examiner (contract attorney for Bellingham) | | Stephanie Mays | Parking Code Compliance Officer II, City of Bellingham | | Nathan Gerber | Appellant (resident appealing vehicle impound) | | Ms. Bowker | Hearing Clerk | ### Background Context This case arose from ongoing parking problems in a residential area near Western Washington University campus. The Cedar Street, North Forest Street, and North Garden Street neighborhoods have residential parking zones specifically to prevent students from parking on residential streets and walking to campus. Between January 23 and February 19, 2025, the city received seven complaints from residents about parking violations in this area. The property at 225 North Forest Street is unique - it's a single house divided into four separate dwelling units, housing approximately 10 people total. The city has already made an exception by allowing this property to have four residential permits and four visitor passes instead of the standard two of each for single-family homes. This reflects the unusual nature of the property but still creates challenges when multiple residents have vehicles. Nathan Gerber's vehicle was towed after he forgot to display his visitor pass, which had fallen to the floor while driving the night before due to visibility concerns. This was his second parking violation at this location. ### What Happened — The Short Version Nathan Gerber's car was towed from North Forest Street on February 25, 2025, because his visitor parking pass wasn't visible. The night before, he had removed the pass from his rearview mirror because it blocked his view while driving in the rain, then forgot to put it back up when he parked at home. The city had received seven complaints about parking violations in this neighborhood over the previous month. Parking enforcement had made several visits to remind people about the rules before finally calling in tow trucks. Gerber's vehicle had already received one ticket on February 19. During the hearing, Gerber argued that the city's parking system was unfair to his building, which houses 10 people but only has 4 permits and 4 visitor passes. He requested the impound fee be waived and asked for long-term solutions including additional permits. The city explained that permits can only be issued through the property owner, and the building already has more permits than normal due to its unique situation. The hearing examiner noted she has no authority to change city parking rules and encouraged Gerber to speak with city council about policy concerns. ### What to Watch Next - The hearing examiner's written decision is due by March 24, 2025 - If Gerber wants to change parking policies, he would need to address Bellingham City Council - The hearing examiner mentioned she includes impound appeal issues in her annual report to city council

## MODULE S2: FLASH CARDS **Meeting ID:** BEL-HEX-2025-03-10 **Q:** What vehicle was impounded and when? **A:** A 2004 Toyota RAV4 belonging to Nathan Gerber was towed from North Forest Street on February 25, 2025. **Q:** What is Sharon Rice's role in this hearing? **A:** She is an attorney working under contract as the Hearing Examiner for Bellingham and about 9 other cities, with jurisdiction to hear and decide appeals. **Q:** What are the enforcement hours for the residential parking zone? **A:** Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, excluding holidays. **Q:** How many complaints did the city receive about parking violations in this area? **A:** Seven complaints were received between January 23 and February 19, 2025, spanning Cedar Street, North Forest Street, and North Garden Street. **Q:** Where should visitor passes be displayed according to city rules? **A:** Visitor passes must be hung from the rearview mirror or placed on the dashboard where they're clearly visible and readable. **Q:** How many permits and visitor passes does 225 North Forest Street have? **A:** The property has 4 residential permits and 4 visitor passes, more than the standard 2 of each due to having 4 separate dwelling units. **Q:** What happened to Gerber's visitor pass the night before the tow? **A:** He removed it from his rearview mirror while driving because it was blocking his view in the rain, then forgot to put it back up when he parked. **Q:** How many people live in Gerber's building and how many parking permits do they have? **A:** Approximately 10 people live in the building with only 4 permits and 4 visitor passes total. **Q:** What technology does the city use to check parking permits? **A:** Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) that scan plates and check them against a database of valid permits. **Q:** Can the hearing examiner change city parking policies? **A:** No, the hearing examiner has no authority to challenge or change city code - that would require action by city council. **Q:** What was the standard penalty for a parking infraction mentioned? **A:** $30 civil penalty for a standard parking infraction under Bellingham Municipal Code 1133.230. **Q:** Who can request additional permits for a property? **A:** Only the property owner or property manager can request additional permits through the Director of Public Works. **Q:** How many times did parking enforcement visit this area before towing? **A:** At least 5 times during the month - January 24, January 31, February 12, and February 19, plus the towing day February 25. **Q:** What must be visible on a vehicle with a residential parking permit? **A:** A permit sticker on the rear bumper or in the lower left corner of the rear window, or the license plate must be registered in the city's system. **Q:** When is the hearing examiner's decision due? **A:** March 24, 2025 (10 business days from when the record closed). **Q:** What was unique about the February 25 towing operation? **A:** The city scheduled multiple tow trucks because they were planning to tow 10+ vehicles that day. **Q:** Why doesn't the city check license plates for visitor passes? **A:** Visitor passes are for temporary use and aren't entered into the license plate database, which is why they must be visibly displayed. **Q:** What suggestion did the hearing examiner give Gerber about his policy concerns? **A:** To email or speak directly to city council about how the parking rules affect residents, as they have more impact hearing from residents than from city staff.