By Warren Cornwall
Herald Writer
Housing developments in Snohomish County soon will undergo closer scrutiny for their impact on local roads.
The county council tightened the standards for determining whether a new development will cause gridlock on area roads by attracting more cars. The county must rule that there is enough room on the roads before approving most housing projects.
The compromise deal won support from both growth-control advocates and housing industry officials, who had lobbied intensively on the ordinance.
Several council members cheered the changes as a balance between the needs of residents and developers, in a compromise hammered out over several months.
"I think it goes a long way toward solving our traffic problems in a fair and equitable manner," councilman Mike Ashley said.
But Gary Nelson, the council’s sole Republican, said Ashley overstated the importance of the new measure for dealing with traffic problems. Many of the worst congestion points are on state highways, which don’t fall under the county’s control, he said.
Nelson predicted the council could have to fine-tune the ordinance.
"Give it a try and see how it works in the next few months," he said.
That would also come after the Nov. 6 general election, when Republicans hope to gain a majority on the council. Ashley’s seat is among those targeted by Republicans.
The changes are aimed at medium-sized developments between seven and 50 houses. Though more common than larger projects, they have faced less stringent scrutiny.
Until now, when a medium-sized development was proposed, county officials looked at road conditions to determine whether there was enough room on the streets for more cars. But that ignored future traffic from yet-to-be-built projects.
The new ordinance would look at developments and predicted road conditions for the coming six years. That forecasting already happens for large-scale projects.
Jody McVittie, who lives near Lake Stevens and has pushed for stricter standards, said the new rules could save the county millions of dollars by keeping new development from clogging already busy roads and shifting it to areas where there is room for more cars.
"It’s so much better than what we had before," she said.
The prospect of stricter congestion standards, which could block most development in areas with severe congestion, had worried some developers. Industry lobbyists had urged the county to put off any decision pending a detailed analysis of the economic impact of the new regulations.
But Wednesday, there was at least partial support for the measure.
The changes were "on balance an improvement over previous traffic concurrency policies, though still in need of minor changes," Sam Anderson, executive officer for the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, said in a news release.
Earlier concerns were partly answered by a provision allowing developers to get county certification on the traffic question before drafting more detailed and costly development plans, association spokeswoman Allison Butcher said.
You can call Herald Writer Warren Cornwall at 425-339-3463 or send e-mail to cornwall@heraldnet.com.
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