The Seattle-Snohomish Mill, Jaco Environmental, H. B. Jaeger, Dynamic Diesel, Randtronics, Harvey Field and more than two dozen other businesses in the South Snohomish Urban Growth Area say they have found a no-cost solution to removing a development lid placed on that area by a Jan. 30 Snohomish County Council decision.
That’s when the council voted 4-1 to not spend $210,000 to appeal an unnecessary designation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that changed the area from “flood fringe” to “density fringe” in 2005.
The businesses say the designation change was due to poor mapping of the flood plain area that mistakenly placed the South Snohomish UGA boundary line incorrectly, the area where they have operated businesses for decades. Under the “density fringe” classification, the businesses can no longer expand to stay competitive in the marketplace or even upgrade buildings and other facilities on their existing sites.
The dissenting vote was from Councilman John Koster, who urged a quick resolution to the problem by having county officials meet with the businesses to determine “what exactly they need to stay in business.”
County Council Chairman Dave Somers, who represents the Snohomish area, said the county would work to alleviate the situation because “the businesses and the airport are valuables assets for the county.”
Councilman Dave Gossett said, “I strongly support looking at ways to help these businesses out of the nonconforming use trap (brought about by the FEMA designation) so they can prosper.”
However, the group claims that a visit from the county planning director, Craig Ladiser, only brought a message that nothing significant could be done to help them under the county’s building codes so long as the current FEMA designation is in place.
In a March 4 meeting with nine of the businesses, SCBJ was told that the county’s decision threatened the existence of those enterprises. Together, they employ more than 1,500 people, including jobs at Harvey Field, businesses on the airport and at the Seattle-Snohomish Mill and businesses along Airport Way south of the city. If they can’t maintain or grow the businesses they’ve invested in for years, they’ll eventually disappear, unfairly losing their right to free enterprise, the group agreed.
The group’s attorney, Molly Lawrence of Gordon Derr LLP in Seattle, recently wrote letters to Ladiser asking that a representative of the business and land owners, Bob Waltz of Seattle-Snohomish Mill, be allowed to join the county in its upcoming meetings with FEMA to discuss that area. She pointed out that the property owners had hired Ray Walton of WEST Consultants to reassess maps of portions of the flood plain with more accurate information than FEMA had in 2005.
Based on the new information that more accurately designates the areas where the flooding from the Snohomish River is expected, Lawrence said a fresh analysis should show that the South Snohomish UGA could be returned to flood-way fringe status. It also proves that the area never should have been designated as “density fringe” in the first place.
Lawrence also has written directly to the Department of Homeland Security, the new agency in charge of FEMA, requesting a meeting to submit the new information that corrects the location of flood-prone areas that originally brought the UGA’s change to the “density fringe” designation. She also has discussed the matter with the state Department of Ecology, suggesting that the new Alternative 2R data could be included in the county’s maps to FEMA, achieving a map revision without the need for a Conditional Letter of Map Revision from FEMA. She said both FEMA and DOE representatives she talked to believe that submitted information would be adequate.
On March 6, Lawrence wrote to Ladiser that FEMA’s acceptance of the more accurate information would “restore the flood-way fringe designation to the South Snohomish UGA without, to my understanding, any additional expenditure by the county” for studies, permits or reviews. The new information, she said, proves that the UGA return to the “floodway fringe” does not exceed FEMA’s one-foot rise standard.”
The county is already in the process of working with WEST Consultants and representatives of the French Slough Diking District, which had pointed out recently that the base flood elevation had been set erroneously high. Based on those discussions, FEMA and WEST agreed with the diking district. The South Snohomish UGA businesses also believe, Lawrence said, that the base flood elevation in the area of the airport was overstated by at least a foot or more. Buildings that have stood for more than 100 years on that site, with valid elevation certificates lower than 22 feet, have never gotten wet from flooding. She also noted that the county has recognized Harvey Field as an essential public facility under County Ordinance 04-125 and the Growth Management Act.
“It is our position that the county’s refusal to act to restore the flood-way fringe designation to the Harvey Field property (and the entire South Snohomish UGA), despite clear opportunities … to do so, is a violation of the county’s obligation under the GMA not to preclude the siting or expansion of an essential public facility,” Lawrence wrote to Ladiser.
Harvey Field, built on the Harvey family’s homestead property settled in 1859, needs to grow, too, owner Kandace Harvey said. The airport has 330 based aircraft there and provides employment for 400 people at the airport and other businesses on the airport property, creating a payroll of more than $7.5 million and an economic impact on the community of more than $22.2 million annually, even in 2001 when the most current study was completed. She needs to grow to attract new business. In the meantime, she already has lost potential tenants who were waiting for her to build new hangars and commercial buildings.
“So they’re going to Paine Field instead, a competitor that receives millions of dollars a year of county tax dollars because it’s a public airfield, while Harvey Field instead pays its fair share of taxes and funds operations at no cost to the public. I need to compete, too,” she said.
Another business affected by the present “density fringe” designation is the Seattle-Snohomish Mill with 150 employees. Owner Waltz said two major competitors have moved to the county in the last three to four years, and he has to be able to modernize his mill with new equipment and facilities to compete with them.
“People against the airport’s expansion plans don’t realize that our 20-year master plan and future permit applications are totally separate issues from this problem with the UGA designation,” Harvey said. “The UGA landowners should not suffer because some people do not approve of the airport’s 20-year plan; that seems heartless. Right now we’re just concerned about all of us surviving. This is an important industrial area for the county, and someday it could even be in the city. It’s part of the city’s Urban Growth Area and would be an economic asset for them.”
On the county’s Web site it says the council’s duties ‘include identifying and articulating the needs of the citizens and ensuring that government responds effectively to the community’s needs, Hill wrote to Councilman Somers.
“I think this means they should protect the 1,500 jobs this community needs, jobs that will be affected by the decision on this issue,” Hill said in her letter.
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