The economic plan for Snohomish County released Thursday by a group selected by Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon looks good.
Strike that, it looks very good as a comprehensive way to boost the county’s economy without abandoning safeguards aimed at protecting our environment.
If you haven’t seen the report, here’s a quick summary of some of the recommendations:
* Regulations must be streamlined to save developers time and money and to make the development process predictable. This would include making simple building permits available in a day, eliminating redundant paperwork and improving county technology so that many things can be done online.
* Farmers need to have predictability with regulations as well, and also need many more options, such as improvements in what they’re permitted to do to make money while living in an agricultural zone.
* Fees should cover costs of things such as handling garbage and should be raised incrementally rather than waiting until increases are long overdue and adopting dramatically higher fees for county services.
* The county should try to coordinate its tax structure with the cities and the state.
* Road projects are underfunded. The county should raise the road portion of the property tax the full 1 percent that’s allowed each year.
* Paine Field should be further developed. Provide money to support construction of a National Flight Interpretive Center there as a major tourist attraction near the Boeing Co.’s Everett plant. And passenger air service should be started at Paine.
* We need a four-year college and also workforce development training.
I’ve left a lot of stuff out, but you can read the report in its entirety by visiting www.co. snohomish.wa.us and looking for the item called citizens cabinet report.
The content is pretty interesting, but it’s all meaningless unless county officials take action, using it as a true blueprint rather than just letting it sit on the shelf with all the other studies.
Reardon promised he won’t let any grass grow before he starts taking action.
He intends to send out an executive order out this week telling his planning department staff and others to take action on regulation reform.
He said that’s essential if the county is to become more competitive in the region.
Reardon said he found no surprises in the report and added that the group did just what he hoped it would in developing a specific plan of action.
“They went a little farther than I asked,” Reardon said. “There are some positive things and some things that people are not going to like seeing.”
Under the latter category, Reardon said Mukilteo-area residents aren’t going to like the Paine Field recommendations.
Reardon himself appears to have shifted his views slightly on Paine – moving from someone who didn’t really want passenger service there to someone now willing to consider it.
He basically says that the county needs to have serious discussions about passenger service with residents.
Connie Niva, co-chairwoman of the group, believes the report won’t sit on the shelf.
She said committee members expect action on their work.
“I’ve spent a lot of my life sitting on committees and making recommendations that don’t happen and I think that’s not what’s going to happen here,” said Niva, a former member of the Everett City Council and the state Transportation Commission and a current member of the Washington State University board of trustees.
Niva said she expects periodic reports from Reardon and said those progress reports should be up on the Internet with the original recommendations.
That will allow all of us to see what’s happening and to put our two cents in.
I plan on keeping an eye on the progress, and I recommend that you do, too.
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.
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