North Bend’s City Council voted March 1 to ban vinyl siding on most new homes.

One council member voted against the prohibition, which was put in place for environmental and aesthetic reasons.

“I disagree highly with this vinyl siding prohibition,” said Council Member Dee Williamson. “That is going a little too far, to tell someone they can’t have a low-maintenance siding on their house.”

The ban was part of several amendments to the city’s Residential Design Standards and Guidelines, which Senior Planner Mike McCarty introduced at the council meeting. He said the amendment was city-wide, but affected only new construction of multi-family housing, and single-family developments of more than four units per acre.

“Someone could come back later on, on their own, and replace their siding down the line with vinyl siding and these standards would not apply to them,” he said.

The issue, however, was divisive at both the council level and the Planning Commission level, where it was being considered for several months. At the commission’s December 9 public hearing on the proposed amendments, the ban was included, but the commission later decided, in a split vote, against recommending a ban on vinyl siding.

From the Planning Commission, the amendments went to the Community and Economic Development committee of council members David Cook, Chris Garcia, and Jeanne Pettersen, where vinyl siding was further considered. Committee members agreed to add the vinyl siding ban back into the amendment for council to approve.

Pettersen said that the amendment “is intended to ensure a livable community… and also to try to ensure and promote the use of quality materials in construction.”

Before being amended, the city code approved “higher-grade vinyl siding.”  The amendment states that “due to its harmful environmental impacts and synthetic appearance, vinyl siding is prohibited in new single-family developments over four lots, and on multi-family buildings.”

Several council members tried to address Williamson’s concerns by emphasizing that the change affected only new construction. Community and Economic Development Director Gina Estep explained that the decision “does provide the opportunity for a more diverse neighborhood,” since vinyl siding has a very limited color palette.

Williamson responded that the environmental impact of vinyl siding was probably no greater than that of ongoing wood siding maintenance, and that many home-owners’ associations don’t allow residents to change the colors of their homes, anyway.

Before the vote was taken, he told the council, “You’re requiring people to maintain building sidings that for some, especially older people, is extremely difficult to do.”

The amendment was approved 5-1 and took immediate effect. Other changes in the amendment included requirements for developers to provide more exterior color palettes, floor plans, roof pitch options, elevation changes, window options and other elements for varying the look of buildings, according to the number of homes in a development. It also eliminated specific architectural style recommendations, restricted the size and location of garages, eliminated shutter restrictions, and banned monotone color schemes in developments, calling instead for darker, natural-tone colors to better blend with the city’s natural surroundings.