County Councilman John Koster thinks it’s “strange” that so many people living in the Stillaguamish valley around Island Crossing “are opposed to letting others (Dwayne Lane) exercise their property rights.” Strange? Strange is when speculation in farmland is offered up as a property-rights poster child.
Once again, ideology crashes head-on into the facts. When the farm now approved for Mr. Lane’s car lot was first purchased by him and John Henken in December 1993, it was zoned and designated for agricultural use. Those were the property rights they bought, the same rights that strange people elsewhere in the Stilly floodplain – and on farmland countywide – live with. But not Dwayne Lane. Never mind the law. Never mind the courts.
Koster insists campaign contributions had nothing to do with his decision, and I believe him. What I don’t believe is that choosing special interest, over equity and the general welfare, is “the right thing to do,” that keeping urban development out of floodplains is some kind of socialist conspiracy, or that mangling land-use law is good management.
Lynnwood
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