Prime acreage should be farmed

Howard Barrows (“A power struggle at Island Crossing,” Letters, May 30) needs to check his facts. There is no commercially zoned land at Island Crossing, let alone 110 acres of it.

The land in question consists of a 35-acre Rural Freeway Service zone and 75.5 acres of farmland.

Of this prime agricultural acreage, 15 is owned by Dwayne Lane and the rest by the family of retired auto-dealer John Henken. The land was already zoned and designated farmland when they bought it, and they retain every right to use it for that purpose. They also have the right to apply for a rezone, which they did three times, claiming that the land is unsuitable for farming. In truth, most of it was farmed until 1999 and has been deliberately kept fallow ever since – a fact not lost on the judges.

Finally, Barrows’ concern about losing farmland to wetlands hardly justifies losing it instead to building cities in the floodplain, by itself a universally dumb idea.

Max Albert

Lynnwood