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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, September 1, 2009 Reardon says county needs mini-city option The Snohomish County executive vetoes the County Council’s decision to eliminate the proposed land use. By Noah Haglund Herald Writer EVERETT — A battle over whether to allow mini-cities in rural parts of Snohomish County rages on after the county executive on Monday vetoed the County Council’s decision to get rid of them. The County Council voted 3-2 to do away with mini-cities on Aug. 12 with councilman Dave Somers and others calling them a waste of taxpayer money. Executive Aaron Reardon said removing mini-city zoning without offering alternatives did nothing to improve the quality of life in the county. “I think this decision was made very quickly and somewhat in haste,” he said after his veto. The controversial zoning, also known as fully contained communities, would have allowed dense developments in rural areas. In return, developers would have to provide jobs and services nearby. The issue has been hotly debated for years. Dozens of rural residents testified against mini-cities during hearings this summer as part of the county’s land-use docket. In the end, council chairman Mike Cooper and councilmen Dave Somers and Brian Sullivan voted against allowing mini-cities. Councilmen John Koster and Dave Gossett, like Reardon, said they should be allowed. Gossett argued that without fully contained communities, an unfair share of the new population growth would be funneled into his district on the county’s south end. Neither Gossett nor Koster returned a call for comment. Somers said lower state estimates for population growth make mini-cities unnecessary in the county. He called Reardon’s decision “a slap in the face of the public.” What particularly rankled him was the suggestion that the council’s decision was hasty. “That’s absolutely absurd,” he said. “We’ve been working on this for three years.” Currently, the only proposed mini-city would have put up to 6,000 homes near rural Lake Roesiger, east of Lake Stevens. The council can try to override Reardon’s veto or work on modifying current mini-city zoning rules to make it more restrictive. Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com. READER COMMENTS Log in or register to post new comment | Log out Reardon Say County Need Mini City Option Wow I attended the meeting on Sept 1st, and people were very angry. As Kristen Kelly stated 8 years of work regarding FCC has just gone done the steam and because Reardon would like to keep the option on the table, come on! Instead of bulldozing forests, rural and farm lands to build FCC let's concentrate on the cities and communities that we already have. Let's make these livable for all. Have you seen all the empty retail spaces and housing in our communities lately? I know we are in a recession, but a smart leader would think progressively about ways to pull our communities together in this time of urgency. Where will we put the people that are going to move into Snohomish County by 2030? The answer is in our already existing towns, cities and communities. People need to have jobs where they live, so they don't have to commute or take local public transportation. They would live in mixed use (retail and private)and in high density communities or transit orientated communities. If Mr Reardon would put more energy into implementing and educating the Snohomish County Permit and Planning Department for LEED, Low Impact Development Projects, Solar, and alternative energies, than FCCs we would be headed in the right direction for better quality of life in Snohomish County. Karen Erickson | Sep 2, 2009 8:03 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Shame on You! We have been very supportive of Executive Reardon since he has been in office, but this slap in the face makes us question whether we will continue to support him. It is obvious that he no longer cares about residents and cares more about making developers happy. What a shallow excuse for the veto. Growth belongs in cities, not in the rural parts of the county. Maybe it is time for a change at the top. Shame on you! udub LS | Sep 1, 2009 2:46 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal ZONING is done BACKWARDS! Restrictive zoning makes land less valuable and existing structures more valuable. Logically and economically land should be developed to maximum permitted by the zoning. If the purpose of zoning is to restrict the largest structures to small areas of a city or county, then zoning and taxing is done backwards. Land should be zoned and taxed to maximize building size in the areas zoned for dense construction. Then land will not be built on until the the largest possible structure would be profitable. Say a vacant lot downtown was zoned for a 12 story building and if built on would be taxed as if it had a 12 story building on it. The land owner could be absolved of real estate taxes if the city was permitted to use the land for a mini-park. Using these rules, a new city should be planned somewhere between Olympia and Centralia/Chehalis. Right from the start the streets and an utilities should be built as if a real city existed. The land near the freeway should be zoned for skyscrapers and for lesser heights as one went east and west away from the freeway. There would never be a need for a zoning change. bill wald | Sep 1, 2009 1:37 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Clowns and Cronies. Put a clown in charge and a circus is sure to follow. Reardon is just making sure there is plenty of room in the county for all the rest of his clown troop. CHA- CHING!!!!!!!! Pay back time for getting him into office. D Burn | Sep 1, 2009 12:42 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal FCC veto Today 15 very angry people went to the office of Executive Reardon in hopes of meeting with him. We did not have an appointment, and of course he was not there . He was at some ribbon cutting ceremony for some new business. His aide Brian Parry and someone from his office met with us. We asked them to listen, but Brian tried to educate us on FCC policies and the process etc. They did not record the meeting so the Executive could hear from us. They took very little notes. They did hand out a letter from the Executive. In it were some very interesting things. You should call up the Executive's office and ask for a copy. One thing Mr. Parry said to all of us was that the two council members who voted to keep FCCs in place, Council member Dave Gossett and John Koster, requested the Executive make this veto. After our meeting with Mr. Parry, we went and had a meeting with Council Member Gossett. He told us that it Reardon is lying and that he never did any such thing. Lies. And information that is not the whole truth, such as the process to repeal FCCs was done quickly and in haste. Excuse me. I've been working on this issue for 8 years!!!! There were tons of meetings and lots of people involved. This was an issue that was anything but done in haste. Wednesday, September 9 at 9 a.m. the County Council will be having their vote whether to override the veto or not. That will mean either Council member Dave Gossett or John Koster changing their vote. Call or write them and let them know what you want them to do. And please show up to the meeting if you can!!! It's important for the council to see people at this meeting. Kristin Kelly | Sep 1, 2009 12:36 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Reardon and his pack It wouldn't take much research to follow the trail of money, favors and job opportunities offered to these degenerates. Does anyone really think that the general public's interests are equally represented alongside groups like the MBA who will do anything to get their way? Citizens waiting in a line for a chance at a microphone at a public meeting? vs. big business providing entertainment, booze, job opportunities, and who knows what else? These people are even more disgusting than I thought. I'm sure they all have cushy jobs lined up with the MBA once they finally thrown out of office. FROM: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32614892/ The 100-year-old Master Builders Association has long been politically active, trying to serve the interest of its 4,100 member companies. A big part of the association's lobbying job includes fighting the many government regulations that make new houses and development more expensive. A former employee with the association, Brian Parry, is one of the top officials in the county executive's office. Parry, an executive director, worked for Reardon in the Legislature, then with the Master Builders, before Reardon hired him at the county in 2006. Anderson downplayed that history. AND THIS FROM COOPER. “Going to those events and paying your own way is probably better for networking purposes than almost anything else you can do,” Cooper said. “Advocacy groups entertaining government officials is the way things go. It's the way business is done.” The citizens made their opinions perfectly clear, but apparently Reardon has no interest in what the annoying little people want, or how the council votes. The MBA has clearly infiltrated the ranks. Someone needs to do a little digging because something smells really rotten. I think it would be great if a bunch of people showed up and demonstrated outside of Reardons office. It may not accomplish much, but at least maybe it would embarrass him,(if that is possible). What a tosser! H White | Sep 1, 2009 12:04 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Reardon just a part of the disease Come on everyone! Do you all remember this story just a few weeks ago: Snohomish County's planning director was fired last week after a woman complained that he exposed himself and assaulted her while drunk at a golf tournament hosted by the Master Builder's Association of King and Snohomish Counties. The link is: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090825/NEWS01/708259900 This is the caliber of individuals running our planning department do you think they have thought out anything? Reardon his buddies and the Master Builder's Association seem to be buying and drinking their way through the process. I have seen the start of that mini city at Lake Roesiger and they have just mowed down acres of virgin forest. It is amazing. We need to stop growth now! Stan Knoblich | Sep 1, 2009 11:55 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Reardon HAS slapped us in the face! We need to recall each of the morons who have voted to allow this misuse of rural lands. HEY MORONS ... THEY ARE RURAL FOR A REASON!!! I used to live on Dubuque near Lake Roesiger Road (until they stole my home!) and fully understand how this type of development WILL RUIN THE QUALITY OF LIFE that people who live in that area have chose. Although I no longer live there, I now live in Machias and will still be affected by all of the drivers coming down OK Mill road, which already has too much traffic. I can sympathize with owners who may have bought land out there hoping to develop on it ... but when you invest in rural land such an investment IS A KNOWN RISK you took when you purchased the land. Even considering a fully contained community in this economic climate is insane ... DON'T RUIN OUR RURAL AREAS!!! Brad Ashforth | Sep 1, 2009 11:36 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal NO REQUIREMENT for jobs and services The are no provisions in County Code that the developer of a Fully Contained Community "would have to provide jobs and services nearby". Kathleen Gamble | Sep 1, 2009 10:24 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Reardon in the rearview mirror............ Everyone who has watched Snohomish County Planning devolve under this administration, knows Reardon won't stop until Snohomish County is covered in asphalt and 'developed'. Gossett and Koster are smiling this morning. They lost the vote and 'won' with the veto. If you aren't a developer--and most of us are not, guess what? You get stuck with the fall out from this action! We all get to deal with traffic issues and costs that come from putting people further and further 'out'. This whole issue is a misnomer. A true fully contained community will never exist--it is just a greenlight for developers to build further and further from infrastructure at a cost to all taxpayers. Of course, the developers will have made their money --they aren't complaining. Greed knows no bounds for elected officials in Snohomish county! Shame on you Gossett and Koster for your previous vote. You have a chance to redeem yourselves. Step up and be men representing a responsible future for Snohomish county and her citizens.......not just massaging your ego's and campaigns with developer donations! Susan K | Sep 1, 2009 10:20 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Where has Reardon been? Is it because b]Aaron Reardon wasn't present at the many public hearings regarding Fully Contained Communities to hear in person the public outcry against this type of development that he believes this decision was made in haste. I know dozens of citizens including myself that took time to attend and comment at these hearings in opposition to this type of development. You would be hard pressed to find a citizen in favor and Aaron Reardon knows this from the hundreds of letters he received asking that he uphold the County Council decision to eliminate Fully Contained Communities. Those hundreds of citizen comments obviously fell on deaf ears. I commend Council Members Mike Cooper, Dave Somers and Brian Sullivan for their efforts to protect the resources and interests of the citizens of Snohomish County. Kathleen Gamble | Sep 1, 2009 10:13 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Anyone who votes for John Koster Can expect their quality of life to be destroyed. Get out and vote North County! Its obvious he will do or say anything to line his campaign coffers. He doesn't support FCC's in his ditrict? But pushes for them outside it? You can't blame Gosset. Koster and pseudo democrat/ second largest recipient of neocon campaign contributions Dave Somers are trying hard to destroy South County. Rearodn appears to have gone Master Builder. Stop now Aaron. Going to the dark side is destroying your political career. If "Crooked" Koster gets elected again don't be surprised when you have an FCC at Seven Lakes! And don't be surprised if South County lets him do it! After all, pay backs a...you know what! Henry Stephanson | Sep 1, 2009 10:12 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal (No heading) Reardon needs to stay out of this. People live in rural areas for a reason, not to be surrounded by homes. Make Snohomish County what it used to be! Ryan Link | Sep 1, 2009 9:21 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Whose quality of life? I know Reardon is desperate to improve the quality of life for the developers, but what about the rest of us that have to suffer the consequences? Makes me wonder whom he "plays golf" with... Kerry M | Sep 1, 2009 8:12 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Fully Contained Communities Veto Protest Today at 10 a.m. some folks are going to County Executive Aaron Reardon's office to show him we protest his veto of the ordinance that would have repealed Fully Contained Communities policies and codes. We will ask for him to meet with us. We also are thinking about visiting Council member Gossett and Koster afterwards. Come join the fun if you want. Kristin Kelly | Sep 1, 2009 7:42 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal They have go to go They won't be content until Snohomish County looks like Los Angeles County. I will be talking to anyone who will listen why I won't be voting for Reardon or Koster when they come up for reelection. Cynthia Johnson | Sep 1, 2009 7:23 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Idiot That's what Aaron Reardon is. I won't make the mistake of voting for him again, since apparently no rules apply to him. R N | Sep 1, 2009 6:48 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Lining His Pockets Just goes to show us whose pockets Reardon is in. Jim Wikel | Sep 1, 2009 6:43 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

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