The writer of the Monday letter, “Bills would make plan palatable” obviously did not understand the proposed legislation in bills SB 5425 and HB 1622 and is relying on special interest propaganda for her information.
These bills propose to allow developers to build rural villages or “rural conservation development demonstration projects” in the middle of farm and forest lands. These projects are in reality high density subdivisions specifically tailored for rural property in the Lake Goodwin area owned by the McNaughton Corporation.
The reason this legislation is being proposed is that several of the elected county officials owe big favors to developers and Master Builders for campaign funds and endorsements. Also a “rural conservation development demonstration project” would provide a place to dump development rights purchased from other properties.
The county jumped onto the concept of buying “development rights” from agriculture-zoned properties with the intent of transferring to urban areas. As a result of poor planning and paying way too much for the property rights from “favored” property owners the county found they could not get rid of them. Consequently, these proposed rural villages, which would be exempt from land use regulations, are to absorb the development rights from other properties and allow much denser development than would normally be allowed.
The rural villages would become a conglomeration of multi-unit complexes with high population densities. This concept would be reasonable if the location was in an urban transit route, but it’s not. Rural villages are to be located in rural areas with inadequate infrastructure. The developer’s mitigation fees cover only a fraction of the infrastructure costs such as schools, police, fire, utilities, roads, etc. Guess who gets stuck with the rest?
SB 5425 and HB 1622 are bogus proposals and should not be passed at the expense of taxpayers and the rural environment.
Dave Ridgeway
Stanwood
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