County Council members are probably feeling pretty smug today after shutting down the requests for expansion of urban growth areas. They are probably thinking that they really showed those guys who were trying to compete with the county. Everyone better know that Snohomish County is not going to let anyone else do their job of screwing up “rural urban transition” land.
It may be that the proposal by the city of Snohomish did not contain all the information they should have provided to justify an increase in their boundary. The criteria for expanding UGBs may be so technical that city planners are not bright enough to figure them out. The guidelines should be clear enough that political consideration is not the key component of a decision. Snohomish and the property owners will go back to the drawing board and do a more thorough job next time and it will be hard for the county to deny that after removing critical areas and buffers, there is not enough land left to meet employment and population growth targets within the existing boundary.
As long as there are sewer districts in the county to extend service into areas outside cities, Snohomish County doesn’t need to grant adjustments to UGAs. They usually come after the land has already been planned and developed under “County Guidance”. After the fact, the residents of these areas demand other urban services and Snohomish County just shrugs because they don’t offer urban services. Those would be “city” services. “Go find a city to take you on.”
The Lake Stevens Sewer District has been the tool used by the county to undermine the interests of the City of Lake Stevens. The county has been wildly granting plat approval to areas on all sides of the lake and on Cavalero’s hill for many years because they had a sewer provider that was not accountable to anyone else. If the county had worked with the city fifteen years ago when the UGB was first drawn, both parties could have talked about how the City of Lake Stevens would look in the year 2010. Instead, Snohomish County unilaterally made decisions that will profoundly impact that city forever. Not for the better.
It is not just in Lake Stevens though. Look at Seattle Hill. Snohomish County planning is responsible for every bit of that mess. Their facilitator in that neighborhood is the Silver Lake Sewer District.
Just think about it, if Snohomish County was not in the business of approving urban density housing developments, we would not be experiencing the sprawl everyone is complaining about. If the only way a parcel of land could be developed at less than “5 acre minimum lot size” was to be in a city, the county would look a whole lot different.
And think about this, every place in Snohomish County where there is an Urban Planning anomaly, Snohomish County government is at the root.
Posted on June 17, 2008 at 6:27 am in Snohomish County Political Commentary, Snohomish Washington | RSS feed
|
Reply |
Trackback URL
No Loss for Words
I’M NOT FEELING SO GOOD ABOUT THIS ONE
by Steve DanaCounty Council members are probably feeling pretty smug today after shutting down the requests for expansion of urban growth areas. They are probably thinking that they really showed those guys who were trying to compete with the county. Everyone better know that Snohomish County is not going to let anyone else do their job of screwing up “rural urban transition” land.
It may be that the proposal by the city of Snohomish did not contain all the information they should have provided to justify an increase in their boundary. The criteria for expanding UGBs may be so technical that city planners are not bright enough to figure them out. The guidelines should be clear enough that political consideration is not the key component of a decision. Snohomish and the property owners will go back to the drawing board and do a more thorough job next time and it will be hard for the county to deny that after removing critical areas and buffers, there is not enough land left to meet employment and population growth targets within the existing boundary.
As long as there are sewer districts in the county to extend service into areas outside cities, Snohomish County doesn’t need to grant adjustments to UGAs. They usually come after the land has already been planned and developed under “County Guidance”. After the fact, the residents of these areas demand other urban services and Snohomish County just shrugs because they don’t offer urban services. Those would be “city” services. “Go find a city to take you on.”
The Lake Stevens Sewer District has been the tool used by the county to undermine the interests of the City of Lake Stevens. The county has been wildly granting plat approval to areas on all sides of the lake and on Cavalero’s hill for many years because they had a sewer provider that was not accountable to anyone else. If the county had worked with the city fifteen years ago when the UGB was first drawn, both parties could have talked about how the City of Lake Stevens would look in the year 2010. Instead, Snohomish County unilaterally made decisions that will profoundly impact that city forever. Not for the better.
It is not just in Lake Stevens though. Look at Seattle Hill. Snohomish County planning is responsible for every bit of that mess. Their facilitator in that neighborhood is the Silver Lake Sewer District.
Just think about it, if Snohomish County was not in the business of approving urban density housing developments, we would not be experiencing the sprawl everyone is complaining about. If the only way a parcel of land could be developed at less than “5 acre minimum lot size” was to be in a city, the county would look a whole lot different.
And think about this, every place in Snohomish County where there is an Urban Planning anomaly, Snohomish County government is at the root.
Rate this:
Share this:
Related
Posted on June 17, 2008 at 6:27 am in Snohomish County Political Commentary, Snohomish Washington | RSS feed | Reply | Trackback URL