What does rural mean?

Does it mean quiet county roads with cows grazing in pastures?

Does it mean families who control private land, without politicians telling them whether they can build an extra barn or even a small house for elderly relatives?

A team of Snohomish County planning officials will travel to four corners of the county next month to find out how people here define the word. That information will help shape a plan to govern change outside on land beyond city limits.

“The idea is to plan Snohomish County’s rural lands future,” said Craig Ladiser, county director of Planning and Development Services. “We need broad support from citizens. It won’t happen without it.”

Meetings were held in Snohomish, Monroe, Arlington and Everett in June. Ladiser and his staff asked people then how they thought rural land should be managed. One additional meeting in each of the same cities is scheduled for September so county planners can confirm the wishes they heard from residents earlier this summer.

It’s difficult to discuss land use and avoid a heated debate, but that’s true more than ever when it comes to rural land in Snohomish County, Ladiser said.

Cities here are grappling for land to add to their rosters faster than county planners can decide how to protect what’s left. Within a decade, county planners will likely be managing mostly rural areas, Ladiser said. The county’s planning priorities should reflect that, he said.

The state approved the Growth Management Act in 1990 but left many of the details up to local jurisdictions. County planners created a roadmap for growth in 1995. That plan was updated in 2005, but still very little was determined as far as rural land, Ladiser said.

Since then, loopholes have allowed housing developments and other changes to slip into areas that were otherwise dominated by farmland.

Early this year, a group of rural landowners in the Warm Beach area announced their plans to build more than two dozen two-story duplexes, even though they were otherwise barred by development codes from building single-family homes. Ladiser said then that the county had little choice but to approve the plan.

A major factor in the forums is the tension between the desire for amenities such as public transportation, sidewalks and emergency services and the longing for farming areas to remain unchanged, Ladiser said.

“It has to do with people’s value systems, and the way they grew up,” Ladiser said. “Everybody says they want big open spaces, farms and trees, but if you own 20 acres, do you want to be told you can’t sell five acres to your kid?”

Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.