Tighter rules on rural housing projects, including a move to require better fire protection, are heading to the Snohomish County Council.
The county Planning Commission voted Tuesday to recommend approval of the rules, which include a cap on the number of homes built and stricter landscaping regulations.
The rules target a type of development called rural cluster subdivisions, where houses are built close together and areas of open space around them are preserved.
At the request of the Snohomish and Island County Fire Commissioners Association, the Planning Commission also approved a requirement for projects to have better access to water for fighting fires.
The building industry called the move a “poison pill,” said Mike Pattison of the Master Builders of King and Snohomish Counties.
“They want the same water flow intensity in rural areas that they expect in urban areas, and it’s just not possible when dealing with rural water supply systems,” Pattison said.
The proposal was made in February, before arsonists torched the Street of Dreams luxury houses — part of a rural cluster housing project near Echo Lake.
The building industry plans to lobby the County Council this spring to remove the requirement, he said. The council has final say over the rules.
County rules have allowed clusters of houses to be built in rural areas since 1996, but interest spiked in recent years.
Builders and county officials say the rural projects preserve open space better than typical subdivisions.
An opposition group, Snohomish People Opposed to Rural Cluster Housing, wants rural clusters banned until even stricter rules are adopted, said Maxine Tuerk, co-chairwoman of the group.
“We were in hopes they would ask for a moratorium and ask (county planners) to finish their job,” she said. Some rural residents complained to the county that the clusters of houses look too much like urban neighborhoods.
The commission tried to see both sides.
“We sought to make changes that would balance the public’s concern about how the rural clusters fit into a largely rural area with the need to provide some room for population growth in the county,” Planning Commission chairman Bill Diepenbrock said. “I think we struck a fair balance with the ordinance as amended.”
Current rules allow clusters of 30 houses in a project, but that will be cut to 13 if the rules are approved. Also, if a project is within a half-mile of public water service it will be required to be connected instead of digging an underground well.
More trees will be left standing on properties and wider swaths of landscaping would be planted under the proposed rules.
In some parts of the county, building houses in a cluster allows twice as many homes to be built compared to a standard subdivision, so long as 45 percent of the land is preserved as open space.
Public complaints about rural housing projects sometimes strayed from the proposed regulations on the table, planning commissioner Gene Miller said.
“They are more directly related to the growing pains of a growing community,” said Miller, who is a land-use consultant and former county planner. “There are people in Snohomish County who don’t like to see growth, and don’t like to see the results of growth, and especially don’t like to see the lack of appropriate response to growth by the government.”
If the county did a better job building roads and infrastructure for housing and population growth, there would be fewer complaints about growth, Miller said.
“I think the citizens need to focus more on how to resolve the problem that they’ve encountered with growth rather than focus on a way to stop growth,” he said.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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