When Sharon Carter spent $9,000 to buy a shuttle bus to take people back and forth to her neighborhood food bank, she believed she had resolved her city of Kent code violation.
Carter, featured in a Nov. 21 Kent Reporter story about a code violation dispute with the city, allegedly remains in violation with the number of people she brings twice a week to the food bank she operates out of her East Hill home.
In the fall, a code enforcement officer counted 16 people in line at her home, which violates the city code of no more than four vehicle or pedestrian trips in and out of the home per day, according to a city letter sent to Carter.
So Carter, 64, bought a shuttle bus to take as many as 14 people, who park at the nearby River of Life Fellowship Church, to her house to pick up food and then takes them back to the church.
“I make four, two-way trips by code,” Carter said during a phone interview on Tuesday.
People previously parked along the neighborhood street with as many as 40 vehicles arriving during a two-hour period on a Saturday. Carter runs the food bank with volunteers and gets surplus food from warehouses and stores, much of it from one distribution warehouse in Kent. She estimates she helps feed about 3,000 people a month.
“Now they (city officials) say only one person can get off the bus at a time,” Carter said. “Now they are making stuff up. There’s nothing in the code about that. Now they are harassing me. I’m only doing good for the community.”
City building official Bob Hutchinson, who oversees code enforcement, did not return emails for comments about Carter’s latest reported code violation.
Carter has run the food bank out of her home since 2008. A next-door neighbor, however, called the city to complain about all of the vehicles and people at the house. City officials said in November the code helps preserve the residential character of the city’s neighborhoods from commercial encroachment while recognizing certain selected business activities are compatible with residential uses.
City officials say a food bank in the middle of a neighborhood doesn’t fit the code. Carter stores food in tents and refrigerators in her backyard.
People come from Kent, Renton, Tukwila, Seattle and other cities to use the food bank. Carter doesn’t restrict how many times people can come to get food.
With city code enforcement officers still coming after her, Carter said she plans to hire an attorney to help her fight City Hall.
“I can’t do it alone,” she said. “I called a lawyer and I’m waiting for him to get back to me.”
The attorney already knew about Carter and her fight against the city from newspaper and television news reports.
“I’m going to take on the city because it’s making up its own rules,” she said. “The next thing they’re going to do is tell me to salute the moon at midnight.”
Carter says she drops the people off to pick up groceries and 20 minutes later they are back on the bus for a ride to the church.
“I bought the bus to be in compliance with city codes,” she said. “Now I’m feeling overwhelmed.”
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