Concerning Coreen McEnery’s letter embracing the Growth Management Act: she left out the important issues of property rights and voter approval.
The GMA started as state Initiative 547 on the November 1989 ballot. The 1989 vote was a resounding 70 percent to 30 percent defeat for the initiative. The 1990 Legislature passed into law the essence of Initiative 547 as The Planning Enabling Act. The law, WAC 36.70 through 36.70.992, enacted 101 statutes against the constitutionally guaranteed right to own land, which bears a great resemblance to the initial Communist takeover in Russia. The definition of communism is the absence of private property and in this case “land.” The government owns more than 75 percent of Snohomish County, with the percentage growing each year.
GMA takes away the individuality of residents and puts them under the iron yoke of Olympia. McEnery is willing to walk lock-step, trusting that the government knows best for all of us. GMA-mandated costs of the sewers, mass transit and regulation is bankrupting the state. Shoving this socialist doctrine down the throats of an unwilling population reeks of tyranny.
The people of the state have gotten massive land use regulations that drive the cost of a house up by $40,000 to $60,000 minimum. Farmers are regulated or taxed off their farms. Few can afford to live in the rural areas due to regulations, which prohibit rural land ownership. Those within the boundaries are now inundated with high-density overcrowded city living. More than half the people in Snohomish County cannot afford even the most menial housing.
Is she saying we should let the GMA take our way of life and freedoms under the guise of protecting the environment?
PETER J. McKEOWN
Arlington
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