King County approves pair of land-use regulations

By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter

10/20/04

Other links
Proposed updates to critical areas, clearing & grading, and stormwater ordinances
Map: Urban growth boundary (PDF)


King County, WA - The Metropolitan King County Council last night passed two of three proposed ordinances that will significantly limit what rural landowners can do with their property, in an effort to better protect streams, wetlands and wildlife.

By a 7-6 vote along party lines, the council passed the critical-areas ordinance and the surface-water ordinance. The critical-areas ordinance establishes wider no-development buffers along streams and some wetlands; the surface water ordinance tightens regulations on how much water can run off newly developed sites.

The wetland buffers County Executive Ron Sims proposed last spring were revised to allow low-density rural homes to be built closer to wetlands and require wider buffers in high-density urban development.

Environmentalists supported the package, while rural landowners mounted months of protests and blasted it as "a massive land grab" that violates their property rights.

After approving the first two ordinances late last night, the council continued its review of the third pending law: the clearing-and-grading ordinance, which it appeared likely to approve.

The clearing ordinance — the most controversial part of the package — would allow rural landowners to clear only 35 to 50 percent of their land, depending on the parcel size.

Yesterday's action came six days after the Pierce County Council became the first in the state to adopt a tough clearing rule that requires rural residential landowners to keep 65 percent of their land in native vegetation.

Sims' original proposal contained that restriction, but the council's growth-management committee last month reduced the native-vegetation requirement to 50 percent on properties of 5 acres or less.

If adopted, the modified ordinance would allow owners of more than 5 acres to set aside 2½ acres or 65 percent of the land, whichever is less.

The clearing restriction is intended to protect streams and species such as threatened chinook salmon by preserving forests throughout watersheds. Advocates cited scientific research that suggests deforestation significantly alters the runoff of rainwater, damaging streams.

Members of the Republican minority on the County Council blasted the package as unfairly putting the burden of environmental protection on rural residents, while city dwellers and suburbanites shoulder little of the burden.

"I feel very much like the rural part of the county has been disenfranchised over and over again," said Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, R-Woodinville.

Democrats said urban residents have shouldered their share of the burden of growth management.

Julia Patterson of SeaTac said city dwellers have accepted jails, airports, sex-offender housing, traffic and pollution, largely in order to prevent sprawling development across the countryside.

Dow Constantine, the Seattle Democrat who chairs the growth-management committee and shaped much of the package, said it represents "a very good package of regulations that responds to our legal and our moral obligations."

Despite amendments, the package keeps most of the major features Sims proposed in March.

At a news conference held by Republicans council members before yesterday's hours-long meeting, Rob McKenna, R-Bellevue, called the package "the most draconian land-use regulations in the state, if not the country."

"This is a momentous occasion — not necessarily a positive momentous occasion," said David Irons, R-Sammamish. He predicted that landowners will file numerous lawsuits against the new ordinances.

Republicans also argued that the county's analysis of "the best available science" didn't show the need for stricter regulation. Robert Crittenden, a fisheries biologist, said at the news conference that the author of a key paper in the county analysis "did not show his methods, so there's no way to ascertain whether it is valid or not."

Sims said a body of peer-reviewed research confirms the need for restrictions on land-clearing and storm-water runoff caused by homes and driveways. He called Republican attacks on the science report "an argument the Earth is flat. ... The Earth is no longer flat."

Sims rejected Republican arguments that existing regulations could protect the environment.

Sims yesterday proposed an ordinance that would allow property-tax breaks for owners who obtain "rural stewardship plans," approved by the King Conservation District, that protect streams, wetlands and wildlife more than regulations require.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com