The Dec. 29 guest commentary by former County Council member Jeff Sax (“How will new council solve density puzzle?”) brought to light a number of issues that are plaguing Snohomish County. It is a puzzle, indeed.
It is easy to look for blame. Developers, activists, and even the Growth Management Act are easily vilified. But real solutions only happen when we stop the blame game, assess what those puzzle pieces are, and work together for positive change.
We are excited about two critical puzzle pieces: citizens and our new county leadership. The voters over the past two County Council elections have shown through their votes that they indeed want change, and we are hopeful that our new County Council will keep their campaign promises and take us in the right direction. Still, it will take all of us to keep our council members on track.
The Livable Snohomish County Coalition, an organization of neighborhood groups and individuals working toward livable, sustainable urban and rural communities, invite you to join us in our mission (www.livablesnohomish.org.) As the coalition grows, and our county leadership starts listening, we believe the complex puzzle of land use planning for Snohomish County will be solved sooner, rather than later. It will take a commitment from our leaders to have true transparency and better communication, and it will take a commitment from the citizens to take on more responsibility in the planning process. We can’t just build out our urban areas without any regard for quality of life, and we have to retreat from destroying our rural areas with urban style overdevelopment. That is why we are asking for some very specific things from our County Council:
— Better urban growth area subarea planning. We need urban design standards and zoning that will complement our existing urban neighborhoods, whether they are commercial or single-family residential. Our urban neighborhoods need plenty of open space and parks and we have to stop building high density along salmon streams or on hillsides that can’t support it.
— Adequate transportation funding and planning. We just can’t afford growth without adequate infrastructure and transit. The Ultimate Capacity debacle at 164th Street and I-5 is a perfect example of mismanaged planning. With global warming and lack of funding, we all must sacrifice some and work together to create livable, walkable and transit-oriented urban centers and villages.
— Work with the people. Too many development projects happen without folks understanding where they can fit into the process puzzle. County government must do a better job of public notification of large developments to the people who will be directly affected and demand pre-application meetings between developers and citizens in order to alleviate expensive, time-consuming and frustrating appeals.
— Understand the environmental impacts. End the rubber-stamping of all developments, no matter how large, with a SEPA Determination of Non-Significance. Large developments need an Environmental Impact Statement so that citizens will understand exactly what the impacts will be in order to help solve the problems before the fact, not after.
— Eliminate Fully Contained Communities. We see no justification for establishing yet another city in Snohomish County, aka Fully Contained Communities. Cities such as Gold Bar, Sultan and others are struggling financially to stay afloat. Why would we allow another city? Just so a developer can make more money and cram more folks into our rural areas?
— Reduce density bonuses. Rural residents are inundated with Rural Cluster Subdivisions. Historically these types of developments were allowed as a way to help protect more open space, but the practice of allowing for density bonuses and contiguous subdivisions is quickly transforming our rural lands into sprawling suburbia. This issue needs to be resolved immediately.
— Protect resource lands. We have a county executive, and now a council, who proclaim they want to protect farming and forests in this county. But if they continue to allow for car lots, radio towers and airports in farmland and floodplains, we will never protect our resource lands. We need to hold the line on resource land conversion, period.
While we are charging our new County Council for positive change, we are also charging Snohomish County residents, urban and rural alike, to acknowledge that we are all in this together and to begin to work together to achieve that change. It is up to all of us to be part of the solution.
Julie Meghji is a co-founder of the Edmonds-Mukilteo Action Committee. Dave Ridgeway is a member of the Warm Beach Stewards, and board member of 7-Lakes and the Stillaguamish Clean Water Advisory Board. Both represent their respective organizations as members of the Livable Snohomish County Coalition.
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