Maybe they should have stuck with less testy topics, such as religion or the governor’s race.
Snohomish County officials are putting the kibosh on a public policy questionnaire about growth policies.
The move came a bit late, though, after 2,700 surveys were mailed out to county residents and stacks of questionnaires were put in the libraries in Monroe, Marysville and Lynnwood.
The survey posed questions about urban centers, fully-contained communities and money for parks.
But after County Council members started questioning the questions, the county’s planning department decided to squelch the survey. County workers have been setting aside surveys that have been returned, and they collected the ones put in local libraries.
“I take responsibility,” said Craig Ladiser, director of the county’s planning department. “It shouldn’t have gone out.”
Ladiser said the questions were awkward and could leave some people thinking that the policy options mentioned were the only ones the county is considering. That’s not the case. Some options weren’t listed.
The survey went out last week. During a council committee meeting, council members bristled at several questions after they saw the survey.
The hottest topic was affordable housing, and the survey had three questions on the subject.
One asked if developers should be required to set aside homes in new developments for affordable housing. Another asked if developers should contribute to a county-run affordable housing fund. The third asked if the county should offer incentives so affordable housing would be built.
It’s not as if the council hasn’t considered such things before. The Republican majority on the council has voted in recent years against voluntary incentives that would let developers build more homes if they included affordable housing units in their subdivisions.
Ladiser, however, said political considerations didn’t come into play when he decided the survey should be stopped. All five council members expressed concerns about the questions.
“There was no politics in this at all,” Ladiser said.
He said $3,000 was spent on the survey before it was halted.
He’s back: County Executive Aaron Reardon has hired his former campaign manager, Brian Parry, to be his executive administrative assistant. Parry replaces Ann Averill, who retired.
Parry has been the south county manager for the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties. Besides running Reardon’s campaign for county executive in 2003, Parry also worked on Reardon’s winning run for the state Senate in 2002.
Claim of the week: An Everett woman wants $3,938 from the county to pay for car repairs and car rental fees, plus help with her medical bills, because her Pontiac Grand Am was hit by a sheriff’s patrol car on Dec. 21.
Next week: The county’s planning commission will get a briefing on draft policies for fully-contained communities, which are built-from-scratch towns usually situated in rural areas. The county’s updated growth plan is expected to allow such developments to be built here.
How you can get involved: The commission meets at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Rogers Hall at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2301 Hoyt Ave., Everett. The briefing on fully-contained communities begins at 4:30 p.m.
Reporter Brian Kelly covers county government for The Herald. He can be reached at 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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