Whose land is it? - Rural landowners are livid over King
County's Critical Areas Ordinance.
KING
5 News Up Front
with Robert Mak
----------
Original broadcast:
Sunday, February 6, 2005
KING 5 @4:30 p.m.
NWCN @ 8:00 p.m.
KONG 6/16 @10:30 p.m.
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=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
IT'S A THURSDAY NIGHT--
AND AT THIS PANCAKE HOUSE IN ISSAQUAH--
THE MAKINGS OF A REVOLT.
=====/STEPHANIE VENRICK/KING COUNTY RESIDENT/=====
"The government doesn't have the right to take our property."
=====/KATHY SCHROEDER/KING COUNTY RESIDENT/=====
"I'm here because I don't think it's not constitutional."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
WHAT THESE PEOPLE SHARE IN COMMON--
IS THAT THEY OWN PROPERTY--
IN RURAL KING COUNTY--
AND THEY ARE LIVID.
=====/JACK VENRICK/KING COUNTY RESIDENT/=====
"I'm worried about the encroachment of the environmental mentality."
=====/SEN. PAM ROACH/(R) AUBURN/=====
"We have the right as Americans I believe, to possess property.
(applause)"
=====/RONALD P. MARIOTTI/PROTESTER/=====
"They've taken 65 percent of our property away from us."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
THEY HAVE STAGED PROTESTS--
INVADING SEATTLE WITH TRUCKS AND TRAILERS.
THE CONTROVERSY IS OVER A LAW WITH A CUMBERSOME NAME--
THE CRITICAL AREAS ORDINANCE.
A NEW SET OF RULES THAT WOULDN'T GET THE ATTENTION OF MOST CITY DWELLERS--
BUT FROM JUST OUTSIDE THE SUBURBS--
THERE'S NO SHORTAGE OF ANGRY LANDOWNERS--
LIKE MARSHALL BRENDEN.
=====/MARSHALL BRENDEN/PROTESTER/=====
"We're not rabble rousers. We want our land back. We don't want
them to take our land."
=====/MARSHALL BRENDEN/PROTESTER/=====
"When I bought the land, it certainly was an investment."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
BRENDEN LIVES ON 13 ACRES--
JUST EAST OF RENTON.
OVER THE PAST FOUR DECADES--
HE HAS RAISED HIS FAMILY ON THIS LAND--
AND WAS COUNTING ON IT--
AS A NEST EGG FOR RETIREMENT.
BUT REGULATIONS HAVE SLOWLY CHANGED--
WHAT RURAL PROPERTY OWNERS LIKE BRENDEN CAN DO.
AND THE LATEST CRITICAL AREAS ORDINANCE--
ACTUALLY THREE ORDINANCES--
HUNDREDS OF PAGES LONG--
LIMITS HOW MUCH PEOPLE CAN DEVELOP THEIR LAND.
HARRY REINERT--
IS KING COUNTY'S POINT MAN ON THE ORDINANCE.
WITH NEARLY A QUARTER-MILLION PEOPLE MOVING INTO THE COUNTY OVER THE
PAST DECADE--
REINERT SAYS WE NEED REGULATIONS--
TO BETTER MANAGE OUR WATER--
TO PREVENT FLOODING--
AND TO PROTECT THE SALMON.
=====/HARRY REINERT/KING COUNTY/=====
"It's going to be much more expensive to deal with those problems
later than to deal with them now."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
IT ALL STARTED NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO--
WITH THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT ACT.
COUNTIES MUST REVISE PLANS FOR MANAGING GROWTH EVERY FEW YEARS--
AND KING COUNTY SAYS IT USED THE BEST SCIENCE AVAILABLE--
TO COME UP WITH THE CRITICAL AREAS ORDINANCE.
ONE OF THE KEY RULES--
THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL--
IS THAT ANYONE OWNING MORE THAN FIVE ACRES OR MORE--
MUST LEAVE 50- TO 65-PERCENT OF THE LAND--
IN A NATURAL STATE.
=====/MARSHALL BRENDEN/PROPERTY OWNER/=====
"To know you can no longer do something with your land is devastating."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
BRENDEN SAYS--
WHEN HE FIRST MOVED HERE--
HE COULD HAVE BUILT 22 HOMES IN HIS PROPERTY.
ZONING CHANGES NOW RESTRICT HIM TO TWO.
MAKING IT MORE FRUSTRATING--
IS THAT LESS THAN A MILE AWAY--
BRENDEN HAS WATCHED DEVELOPERS BUILD FIVE HOUSES PER ACRE.
THERE'S A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT YOU CAN DO INSIDE THE RENTON
CITY LIMITS--
VERSUS, THE RESTRICTIONS OUTSIDE.
AND FOR LAND OWNERS LIKE BRENDEN--
THE NEW COUNTY ORDINANCE IS JUST ONE MORE INSULT.
=====/MARSHALL BRENDEN/PROPERTY OWNER/=====
"I moved here in '56 I guess when I first moved out into this
country, and I loved it. It was my dream wold. They've shattered that
in the last ten years. Really have shattered it."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
ANOTHER PART OF NEW RULE--
TELLS LANDOWNERS THEY MUST LEAVE BUFFERS--
75 TO 225 FEET FROM STREAMS AND WETLANDS.
WHICH BRINGS US TO ROD MCFARLAND--
ONE OF THE LEADERS OF THE PROPERTY OWNERS REVOLT.
HE LIVES SOUTHEAST OF NEWCASTLE.
MCFARLAND SAYS WHAT REALLY BOTHERS HIM--
IS THAT RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE OF MAY VALLEY--
THE COUNTY HAS PREVENTED ALMOST ALL DREDGING OF MAY CREEK.
WITH ALL THE DEVELOPMENT IN THE HILLS AROUND HIM--
MCFARLAND SAYS--
WHAT USED TO BE PASTURE IN THE 1980S--
HAS NOW TURNED INTO WETLANDS.
=====/RODNEY MCFARLAND/PROPERTY OWNER/=====
"The flooding gets worse every year."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
AND NOW THAT IT IS A WETLAND--
MCFARLAND SAYS--
THE COUNTY WANTS TO SET BUFFERS--
MAKING MUCH OF HIS PROPERTY OFF-LIMITS.
=====/RODNEY MCFARLAND/PROPERTY OWNER/=====
"Eventually we'll get tired of wading in the water and probably
sell out cheap to them and they can turn this valley back into the
swamp that it never was."
=====/SEN. PAM ROACH/(R) AUBURN/=====
"They do not care about your plans for your family."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
PROPERTY OWNERS ARE NOW FIGHTING BACK.
THEY'VE GATHERED THOUSANDS OF SIGNATURES TO FORCE A VOTE ON THE ORDINANCE--
BUT A KING COUNTY JUDGE RULED IN JANUARY--
THAT GROWTH MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS CANNOT BE OVERTURNED BY A PUBLIC
VOTE.
IT'S NOW IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE SUPREME COURT.
DO PROPERTY OWNERS HAVE A CASE?
DID THE COUNTY GO TOO FAR?
THE ONE CERTAINTY IS THAT EVERY FEW YEARS--
COUNTIES MUST REVISE THEIR PLAN--
WHICH MEANS THE BATTLE HAS NO END IN SIGHT.
=====/HARRY REINERT/KING COUNTY/=====
"We get the pleasure of doing this again in another seven years
under the current law, which I hope I'm retired by then."
THE DEFENDERS
=====/WENDY WALSH/PROPERTY OWNER/=====
"What we have here is an emerging old growth forest. This forest
was logged in 1917."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
WENDY WALSH OWNS 60 ACRES ALONG BEAR CREEK--
SOME OF HER LAND IS SO PRISTINE--
YOU FORGET YOU'RE SOMEWHERE BETWEEN REDMOND AND WOODINVILLE.
TO PRESERVE THE NATURAL BEAUTY AND FUNCTION OF THE BEAR CREEK BASIN--
WALSH AND HER NEIGHBORS AGREED YEARS AGO TO ABIDE BY STRICT REGULATIONS--
THAT PLACE EVEN MORE LIMITS ON DEVELOPMENT--
THAN THE NEW CRITICAL AREAS ORDINANCE.
=====/WENDY WALSH/PROPERTY OWNER/=====
"I think a lot of people don't know what can happen if you leave
a forest alone."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
WHAT CAN HAPPEN SAYS WALSH--
IS SALMON HAVE RETURNED TO BEAR CREEK--
SALAMANDERS AND FROGS TO A FEEDER STREAM--
AND WHERE FLOODING ONCE OCCURRED--
NOW WETLANDS AND A CANOPY OF TREES ABSORB THE RAINFALL.
IN EXCHANGE FOR FOLLOWING STRICT REGULATIONS--
THE COUNTY CUT PROPERTY TAXES FOR WALSH AND HER NEIGHBORS--
BY ABOUT 90-PERCENT.
AND SHE CLAIMS--
THE VALUE OF HER RURAL PROPERTY--
SO CLOSE TO AN URBAN AREA--
HAS ACTUALLY SOARED.
=====/WENDY WALSH/PROPERTY OWNER/=====
"I had no idea this was here until I left it alone and it happened."
===/LOUISE MILLER/FORMER KING COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER/=====
"Real estate everywhere has a certain amount of risk to it..."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
NOT FAR FROM WHERE WALSH LIVES--
LOUISE MILLER--
A FORMER KING COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER--
LIVES ON COTTAGE LAKE--
ALSO IN THE BEAR CREEK WATERSHED.
SHE SAYS--
LEAVING 65-PERCENT OF HER ACRE LOT IN A NATURAL STATE--
IS NO PROBLEM AT ALL.
SHE WAS EVEN ALLOWED TO ADD A FAIRLY BIG GARAGE.
===/LOUISE MILLER/FORMER KING COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER/=====
"I have built a very large structure under this restrictive clearance
standard and it works."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
THE CRITICAL AREAS ORDINANCE PASSED 7-6--
ALONG PARTY LINES--
WITH REPUBLICANS OPPOSED.
BUT MILLER--
A REPUBLICAN--
SAYS HAD SHE STILL BEE ON THE COUNCIL--
SHE WOULD HAVE JOINED THE DEMOCRATS.
===/LOUISE MILLER/FORMER KING COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER/=====
"Oh I would have voted for it."
A COUNTY DIVIDED
=====/REP. TOBY NIXON/(R) KIRKLAND/=====
"Oh, a great deal of dissatisfaction, I've never had so many
people quoting the Declaration of Independence to me before."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
STATE REPRESENTATIVE TOBY NIXON SAYS--
THERE'S A GROWING MOVEMENT--
TO BREAK AWAY PART OF KING COUNTY.
=====/REP. TOBY NIXON/(R) KIRKLAND/=====
"Certainly, there's a different mentality in North Bend as opposed
to Capitol Hill."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
SOME RURAL VOTERS FEEL THEY LACK REPRESENTATION--
FROM A COUNTY COUNCIL CONTROLLED BY SEATTLE DEMOCRATS.
WHETHER IT'S LINGERING COMPLAINTS OVER THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT ACT--
THE SITING OF THE NEW BRIGHTWATER SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT--
THE DEBATE OVER RURAL CHURCHES--
OR NOW, THE CRITICAL AREAS ORDINANCE:
=====/ROB RAPOSE/ORDINANCE PROTESTER/=====
"We've been pushed around long enough and this is kind of the
final straw."
=====/ROBERT MAK/=====
NIXON IS INTRODUCING STATE LEGISLATION--
THAT WOULD SPELL OUT EXACTLY HOW TO START A NEW COUNTY.
HIS SUGGESTION:
=====/REP. TOBY NIXON/(R) KIRKLAND/=====
"The same way you have in San Francisco today, you have a combined
city and county government, it's much more efficient than having two
separate governments, let everything out of Seattle remain King County
and have Seattle by Seattle County."
=====/MAK/=====
"How realistic is any of this?"
=====/REP. TOBY NIXON/(R) KIRKLAND/=====
"Well, I think it's very realistic, if people would look at it
objectively and think about what the benefits would be."
King County Executive Ron Sims and State Senator Pam Roach were guests
on the original broadcast of this program.