MONROE – The company developing the state’s first privately owned wetlands bank in Snohomish County has received final regulatory approvals and lined up its first customer.
Habitat Bank LLC said Monday that, after more than three years, it can proceed with developing the first part of its 225-acre site south of Monroe.
Developers can now buy “credits” in the bank to make up for smaller wetlands that are lost to new houses or other developments.
The approval comes as the firm has signed the Lake Stevens School District as its first client.
The district decided to buy credits in the bank as it begins clearing land for a new junior high school on 79th Avenue SE. The new school is scheduled to open in fall 2007.
Dave Burgess, superintendent of the Lake Stevens School District, said a relatively small area of wetlands near the entrance to the 40-acre property will be disturbed.
Instead of creating a replacement wetlands area on the school property, the board opted for the banking option.
“There really were two issues that made it make sense to us. It would make more of that land usable, since we don’t have to mitigate for wetlands there,” Burgess said. Additionally, he said, district officials thought buying into a large wetlands bank was more environmentally beneficial than creating a relatively small wetland.
Habitat Bank’s property sits near the Snoqualmie River, which combines with the Skykomish near Monroe to form the Snohomish River. For that reason, the bank can be used to offset development within the entire Snohomish Basin, which extends north to Arlington and south well into King County.
Wetlands banks have been used by the state Department of Transportation and other public agencies for years. But Habitat Bank founders Victor Woodward and Steve Sego are the first to create a large-scale private one.
Now that the site has won federal, state and county approval, Woodward said major work can begin at the property. That includes grading, construction of small wooden dams and rerouting a stream into its original channel.
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