County Council approves preplanned communities

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, December 10, 2003

The Snohomish County Council put a "safety valve" in place for handling growth Wednesday and approved a policy that would allow "fully contained communities" in the county.

The controversial developments, which have prompted prolonged growth wars in other parts of the state, are preplanned towns covering thousands of acres, with hundreds of homes and apartments, businesses, parks and nature trails.

The County Council was expected to vote on allowing fully contained communities in August, but pushed off the decision in order to examine the idea more closely.

In the end, the council remained divided, voting 3-2 in favor of fully contained communities. Councilmen Dave Gossett, John Koster and Kirke Sievers voted for it, and Gary Nelson and Jeff Sax voted against it.

"The concept of a fully contained community, I don’t believe is ripe for consideration in Snohomish County," Nelson said after the vote.

All but two cities in the county still have room to grow in their urban growth areas, Nelson said.

Expecting fully contained communities to take a share of the county’s growth seems less certain than the prospects of additional development in urban growth areas, he added.

"I really have not been convinced," Nelson said.

Supporters of fully contained communities say the projects prevent hodgepodge development and create tight-knit communities where people can live, work and shop without having to jump into a vehicle. Allowing the developments also gives planners a new tool to guide growth in the county.

Critics say the costs would be substantial to improve roads and supply services to residents of the new communities, and current residents would have to pick up part of the tab.

Also, the developments aren’t truly self-contained, they say. The jobs at the typical businesses in the communities —video stores and gas stations, for example — don’t pay enough for families to get by on. That means more commuters and more traffic congestion in rural areas where the new towns would be built.

For some county officials, a fully contained community is one place to put some of the hundreds of thousands of new residents expected to move to the county in the next 20 years.

The county is revamping its growth plans, and the County Council eventually must decide how much of a share each city will get of the 350,000 new residents expected by 2025.

Gossett said a fully contained community could shoulder part of the growth. There are only two other options for handling growth, he said. They are expanding urban growth areas or increasing densities by cramming more houses into existing neighborhoods.

"I see it as a safety valve," Gossett said.

But there’s no guarantee fully contained communities will be built in the county, he said.

"If they don’t address transportation, open space, sewers and schools, I certainly wouldn’t approve of going forward with them," Gossett said.

"This has got to be a really well-designed project for us to do something," he added. "It can’t be just an excuse to put a lot of houses out in the rural area."

Some are still worried that the developments will be built, however. A developer with land near Lake Roesiger has been lobbying county officials to allow a massive project there.

Before the council voted, some questioned why the developer’s attorneys had submitted draft development regulations on how such communities could be built. The 25 pages of rules cover how the developments could be approved, how much land would be set aside as open space and provisions for up to 50 homes per acre. Proponents of the new developments already had met with the county’s planning staff to talk about the draft regulations.

Some said the public has been shut out of the discussion.

"The debate began, and we weren’t involved," said Cindy Howard of Lake Roesiger.

But Mary Lynne Evans, manager of the county’s Long Range Planning Division, said the rules were only meant to give county officials an idea of how fully contained communities would be regulated.

The draft regulations were "not anything that the executive’s office has bought off on, nor has the staff," Evans said.

"We will have a full and complete debate," she said.

Gossett said the draft rules weren’t unusual, and he wanted to see what the regulations would cover "so I’m not buying a pig in a poke."

"We do ask interest groups, both developers and environmental groups, to help draft legislation," he said.

There will be much discussion as more rules covering fully contained communities are crafted, Gossett said. "I think everyone’s going to have input."

Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.