Declare the drought emergency over: Snohomish County has poured on the public participation with a flood of workshops, hearings and briefings. Over the next few months, some of the most important issues facing our county will be shaped in a series of major updates: the 10-year update of the Comprehensive Plan, the Critical Areas Ordinance update, and the Shoreline Master Program update. Not only are these updates required by state law, they are long overdue in a practical sense and are in dire need of revisions.
In the case of shorelines, it has been more than 30 years. Our county has changed dramatically over the last few decades, as has the information available for us to make sound land-use decisions. And let’s be clear: these updates are not just to satisfy the law and give our good planners work. These are the very tools we must use to protect our community character, steward our resource lands, and keep our communities livable and our families healthy and safe.
So longer days mean more time for you to get to know each of these plans and ready your comments and suggestions, right? Wrong. While Snohomish County should be commended for undertaking a recent and rigorous approach to public participation, the timing is terrible. Just like getting all of our rain at once, a surge of public workshops and hearings flash floods our opportunities for participation.
In May alone (if we assume that they don’t occur on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday), there are only eight days in the entire month without a scheduled workshop or hearing related to the above topics alone. Better put off planting those starts, taking the kids to the park or catching a game after work.
While this sounds out of character for a public advocate, please don’t misunderstand. What’s at issue here is not the deluge itself – it’s that a deluge now will leave us thirsty later. By having the bulk of the participation for three of the most important updates of this decade occur in one month – either by design or by mistake – the public simply cannot track all the issues and help shape the processes. Since all citizens will be directly affected by each major update, and since strong public participation is what drives good land-use decisions, this is a major oversight.
It’s tempting to look backward and assess blame. How come the Comprehensive Plan has seen major changes since the last public review? Why didn’t we get any deliverables for our tax money from the 2003 Critical Areas Ordinance process? It is, however, more useful to look ahead and play the hand we were dealt wisely.
First, we need clarity from each process that only better long-term participation planning provides. Snohomish County citizens, who participate voluntarily and in the spare moments of their lives, deserve to focus squarely on one major update at a time.
Second, we need assurance that the flash flood of involvement now does not preclude a thorough and thoughtful suite of opportunities later. As mandated by law, the county is obligated to a certain amount of public participation. But nowhere is it written that this participation should be well-timed. The CAO has already been written and scrutinized internally by legal staff for months, so how will what you or I have to say be able to steer the process beyond narrow and already-established bookends? Where was the broad-based citizen’s advisory committee that other counties assembled? Citizens deserve to participate when their comments will mean the most.
Third, we need the commitment of our planners and elected officials to truly incorporate our thoughts and comments. After all, it’s not an upcoming election that matters here but our quality of life that’s at stake. We’ll live with the consequences, good and bad, of the decisions made this year for as long as we live here.
So as you find time to put your plants into the ground, play with your kids or watch that game, find some time to help shape our county. Insist that the necessary dialogue between you and your decision makers is a continuous one. And work to ensure that your input doesn’t wash away without soaking in.
John Mauro is Smart Growth Director with Pilchuck Audubon Society in Everett. He can be reached at john@pilchuckaudubon.org.
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