Issaquah Adopts Toughest-In-State Sex Offender Residency Limits

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By By KOMO Staff & News Services

Summary

There's now a ban on registered Levels 2 and 3 sex offenders living within 1,000 feet of schools and day-care centers.

Story Published: Aug 16, 2005 at 7:42 AM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 2:02 AM PDT

Issaquah Adopts Toughest-In-State Sex Offender Residency Limits
ISSAQUAH - The most restrictive local ordinance on sex offender residency in Washington state has been adopted in Issaquah.

By a unanimous vote Monday night, the City Council. approved a ban on registered Levels 2 and 3 sex offenders - those considered most likely to reoffend - living within 1,000 feet of schools and day-care centers.

The measure, which takes effect immediately, leaves open 15 percent of the developable land in this municipality of about 15,500 residents, mostly in office or commercial zones that now have about 260 residences.

Landlords could be fined as much as $250 a day for knowingly renting or leasing housing in restricted zones to Level Two and Three offenders.

"This is a proactive, thoughtful, measured approach," council member Fred Butler said. "While we hope that sex offenders don't reoffend, there's no guarantee of that."

Dozens of residents attended the council meeting but few spoke during the open comment session.

"The right thing was done tonight," said Jon Shiozaki, a father of two children, ages 11 and 8, in the Squak Mountain neighborhood, where two sex offenders live.

One of those men, Kyle Lewis, gave his response to KOMO 4 News:

"It's kinda sad. I think it's more of a retaliatory thing," Lewis said. "They didn't think it was necessary to have an ordinance before we got here. Now they do. "

A state law that took effect last month bars offenders convicted of specific sex crimes against children from living within 880 feet of school grounds while they are under state Department of Corrections supervision.

The tougher Issaquah measure was drafted after the 28-year-old Lewis, a Level 3 offender convicted of two counts of child molestation, and John D. Weber, a Level 2 offender, settled in Issaquah in June. They remain the only registered Level 2 or 3 sex offenders in town.

Sex offenders whose quarters are now off-limits will be notified that they must move within two weeks, City Administrator Leon Kos said.

Lewis says they'll leave.

"We're not going to stay here. I'm sorry, but I don't want to live around people that aren't understanding and are this nuts. It's just nuts. I don't want to live around people that don't want you. They're treating you like garbage and throwing you in somebody else's yard... I'm a human being, I'm not garbage. I did something bad, I did my time, (and) I'm still getting treated like garbage thrown into somebody else's yard.

"If any of these people would take the time to get know me or John, they would find, we're not that bad. We're your average Joe Schmo walking down the street. We do all things by the law, by the book. "

According to a police notice to the community in June, Lewis made "insignificant" progress during six months of participation in a sex offender treatment program at the Twin Rivers Correctional Center in Monroe.