Panel approves land-use package
 
 
(Note: A far more honest title would be, "Property rights thieves pocket control of 65 percent of King County")
 
September 29, 2004
 
By Keith Ervin kervin@seattletimes.com or 206-464-2105
 
Seattle Times staff reporter
 
The Seattle Times
 
Seattle, Washington
 
 
To submit a Letter to the Editor: opinion@seattletimes.com
 

Metropolitan King County Council's growth-management committee voted along party lines yesterday in favor of tough new restrictions on how much land rural landowners may clear.

Committee Chairman Dow Constantine, D-Seattle, said the committee had "smoothed the rough edges" off County Executive Ron Sims' proposals, which had many residents of rural areas in an uproar since being unveiled in March.

But the committee's action left unchanged the most-controversial provision of Sims' "critical-areas" package: a requirement that landowners of parcels larger than 10 acres leave 65 percent of the land in native vegetation when they develop.

The full County Council now will consider the three ordinances that deal with critical areas, surface-water management, and clearing and grading. Yesterday's vote suggests the Democratic-controlled council is unlikely to make wholesale changes in the legislation.

The committee's four Democrats voted yes and the three Republicans voted no on the most-controversial provisions.

Sims and fellow Democrats said the restrictions are needed to protect streams and salmon from winter floods and summer droughts brought on by clearing and construction associated with low-density development.

Some opponents have branded the clearing restrictions as a "land grab" [that is] unprecedented in the nation.

"Someone couldn't come up with something better than locking up 65 percent of the land?" Carnation-area landowner Doug Lapchis said after the vote.

Constantine said King County is not breaking new ground with the ordinances, but he said he couldn't name another county that has adopted such strict land-clearing rules.

Amendments approved by the growth-management committee would give owners of smaller parcels some relief from Sims' original 65-percent proposal: They'd be allowed to cut 50 percent of the trees on parcels smaller than 5 acres.

"Notwithstanding the rhetoric of a few opponents, the members of this committee and this council have listened very carefully to concerns that have been voiced, and where we found that the burden on citizens outweighed the environmental benefits, we've modified or eliminated those provisions," Constantine said.

The growth committee was split not only by political party but also by the districts the members represent.

Among four Democrats -- all from Seattle or Shoreline -- only Constantine represents a significant number of rural constituents.

Each of the Republicans represents large rural areas.

Councilman Steve Hammond, R-Enumclaw, proposed amendments that would have scrapped the new clearing restrictions. "I just think it's a very fair approach to use voluntary tools and approaches before we pick up the two-by-four of regulation and takings," he said.

"This is something I feel very deeply about, right down to my core, that our approach here is wrong."

The committee's vice chairman, David Irons, R-Sammamish, challenged the scientific rationale for clearing restrictions. He said University of Washington geologist Derek Booth, author of a paper linking low-density development to stream degradation, had characterized his own paper as "subjective and not reproducible science."

Harry Reinert, an architect of Sims' proposed ordinances, responded that Booth and his colleagues have published papers presenting the same conclusions in respected peer-reviewed scientific journals.

The ordinances the committee endorsed yesterday were based on an amendment package Constantine drafted after 15 public hearings.

The committee voted for more-flexible buffers around wetlands than the more-formulaic buffers proposed by Sims.

The committee left intact Sims' proposals to widen buffers around streams.

Republicans and Democrats agreed to work together on numerous amendments, including one that would assure landowners the new laws won't prevent them from subdividing their land because of environmental constraints.

Voting for the ordinance package were Democrats Constantine, Carolyn Edmonds of Shoreline, Dwight Pelz of Seattle, and Larry Phillips of Seattle. Republicans Hammond, Irons, and Kathy Lambert of Issaquah voted against the clearing and critical-areas ordinances. Irons broke ranks with his fellow Republicans to support the storm-water ordinance.

Copyright 2004, The Seattle Times.
 
 
Ordinances Meeting:
 
The Metropolitan King County Council will hold a public hearing on the critical-areas package of ordinances at 9:30 a.m. PST Monday in council chambers on the 10th floor of the King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue, Seattle.