[Vision2020] Trouble in Latteland

[Tom Hansen]

Grow up, Dale.

You're like a bad toupee.  You couldn't be more obvious if you had
chinstraps.

Tom Hansen
Just Another Intolerista Liberal Elitista Loose in the Palouse

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"When people sin, everybody has to pay."

- Douglas Wilson of Wilson, Inc. (dba Christ Church) (June 7, 2002)

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-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Faul Ottomaticks
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 1:45 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Trouble in Latteland

Citizens,

Now it is time to put away the large type and the garish colors. You see, 
there has been a large-scale rejection of collectivism just west of here. 
This changes the discussion.

I apologize for suggesting those not happy here in socialist Moscow flee to 
Seattle. I did not know they were already full.

It appears they have reached the breaking point. Could it be that groupthink

failed them? Are we doomed to repeat the errors? After all, they are so much

more enlightened in King County. We must strive to emulate them in our 
efforts to be "progressive". We must be shown the fallacy of our ways.

We must not exercise individual initiative. The state will provide. The 
state is our family now.


Proud to drink straight coffee,

Faul Ottomaticks




Rural rage festers in King County

By Natalie Singer
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Something has gone awry in rural King County.

Across farmland and along country roads, a seething anger is spreading. 
Residents from North Bend to Enumclaw to Vashon Island say they have never 
been more furious with the government meant to serve them. In recent months,

they've accused county leaders of dumping unwanted projects on 
unincorporated land and ignoring concerns of those outside the urban core.

The frustration — playing out in the courts, the Legislature and in people's

back yards — has turned into the seeds of rural rebellion:

• Furious over the passage of new restrictions on how their property can be 
developed, rural landowners collected 51,000 signatures in just five weeks 
to try to force a referendum to overturn the rules. Angry residents 
caravaned to downtown Seattle in mud-splattered horse trailers to protest, 
carrying homemade picket signs with slogans such as "Ron Sims, Kiss My 
Grass."

• Property-rights activists have set up a legal fund and are drafting a 
proposed law similar to one Oregon voters recently passed. It requires 
governments to compensate landowners for lost property value caused by new 
land-use rules. A meeting this month in Olympia drew people from the 
Building Industry Association of Washington and the Washington Grange, and 
support from initiative king Tim Eyman.

• The Citizens Alliance for Property Rights, a new political-action 
committee, is using the Internet to link landowners in dozens of spread-out 
communities. A flurry of messages is posted on its Web site every day, 
featuring venomous discussions about the county's "hidden agendas" and ideas

on how to recall county leaders, overturn land rules and create a new, 
rural-only county. In the past few months, rural residents have swarmed to 
barns and living rooms to plan strategy and build strength.

Some of the conflict stems from local issues, such as the county's offer to 
host a homeless encampment on unincorporated land near Bothell, and its 
recent decision to allow gravel trucks to haul loads through quiet Maple 
Valley almost around the clock to feed the third runway project at 
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.


The county's new redistricting map, which shrinks rural districts from three

to two, has also fueled resentment from residents who see it as reducing 
their already minimal political clout.

But the new critical-areas ordinances, which restrict landowners' use of up 
to 65 percent of their property, have raised the most ire.

"There's going to be a huge amount of civil disobedience. Remember the 
Boston Tea Party? We're that mad," said Stan Powers, who owns seven acres 
with cows, horses and goats outside of Kent. Powers says he is infuriated 
with the amount of paperwork, money and bureaucracy it takes to do things as

simple as remove a downed tree or replace a footbridge over a creek.

Kathy Lambert, one of three King County council members representing rural 
areas, says things have never been so bad. Though there has long been 
tension between rural residents and a county government divided between 
rolling pastures and bustling urban areas, the conflict has reached a 
critical point, she said.

"I would liken the relationship between rural people and King County to a 
divorce. A hostile divorce," Lambert said.

Even Dow Constantine of Seattle, who chairs the council's growth-management 
committee and shaped the new ordinances, acknowledges the problem between 
the county and its rural communities.

"I know there's a great deal of frustration with the bureaucracy," he said. 
"We want to take up some of these issues and address them."

Shifting shares
Just two in 10 King County residents lived in unincorporated areas in 2000, 
compared to four in 10 in 1989 — largely because many urban unincorporated 
areas have been annexed by existing cities or incorporated into new ones.

But while the populated areas are being absorbed into cities, the rural 
areas are being left alone; overall, 8 percent of the county's population 
still lives in rural areas, about the same as 15 years ago.

By 2012, the county estimates, unincorporated areas will be made up solely 
of rural and natural-resource areas. In fact, the county's goal is to become

a "regional, rural government," said King County Executive Ron Sims, 
pointing to its push for annexations.

That picture should give rural residents more, not less, clout with the 
county, many residents say. Instead, they feel increasingly overlooked.

"There have been a lot of unfulfilled promises," said Jerry Adam, who owns 
five acres between Issaquah and Maple Valley.

Adam points to small issues in his own community — a county trail built 
without equestrian access, for example — as evidence of what he sees as 
arrogance toward rural residents.

"They think the rural area is their private retreat. But we live here, we 
care for it. At some point, you just have to say, 'Enough.' "

King County leaders say they are trying to strike a balance.

Sims, who has been criticized by many rural residents, points to the 
county's top rating among U.S. counties for flood control, an issue critical

to rural areas.

The county continues to subsidize services in rural areas, he said, and used

dozens of rural meetings last year to forge compromises on the critical-area

ordinances, including a new stewardship program to help landowners avoid 
bureaucratic layers.

This month, Sims announced a rural initiative aimed at improving relations, 
including the addition of a rural economic-development specialist.

Simmering issue
Rural unrest dates back to King County's original 1990 critical-areas 
ordinance. Furious residents responded by trying to carve a new county, 
Cedar County, out of east King County.

Since then, it's been a long succession of complaints big and small — from 
the impacts of the Brightwater sewage-treatment plant in the north to the 
county's refusal to dredge May Creek in the south.

Myra Lemson, who lives and grows roses on an acre-plus east of Redmond, says

her complaints go back years: She had to pay for a private road to get 
access to her home; she says she pays the same taxes, yet gets a lower 
quality of public services (such as slower police-response times) than those

in more urban areas. Under the new rules, she could have to pay for a permit

to remove the blackberries that plague her property and house rats.

"I am a Democrat, and this has been a struggle for me," Lemson said. "The 
only members of the council who have even responded to my concerns are 
Republicans."

Howard Van Laeken bought his five acres east of Woodinville near Duvall in 
1980. He hoped to subdivide the property and retire on the earnings but 
thinks new rules will prevent that.

The irony, he points out, is that 800 feet away is Trilogy, a 1,500-home 
planned development approved by the county.

"Our individual rights are limited, but Quadrant is allowed to come in, 
strip the land and build thousands of homes," he said.

He and others are pinning their hopes on a possible appeal of the court's 
decision earlier this month not to send the new land-use rules to voters, 
and on a clone of the Oregon law in the works.

Spirits were raised last week when Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, sponsored 
a bill that would require owner compensation for loss of property value 
resulting from the new ordinances. Roach's bill also would make the rules 
subject to citizen referendum.

Joan Burlingame, who owns five acres in Ravensdale and was one of those who 
reviewed the original draft of the new critical-area ordinances, argues that

the ordinances do a lot of good. Livestock owners, for example, can now 
avoid wide stream-buffer requirements if they develop a farm plan, she said.

But the county is not communicating well with rural constituents, Burlingame

adds. "The relationship is pretty dysfunctional sometimes," she said. "I 
don't even think they speak the same language."

Boots Fisher, 82, who lives with her husband outside of North Bend, said 
she's watched the relationship with King County go downhill over the years.

"It used to be that they pretty much left us alone," she said. "I realize 
that when you have population increases like we have, you can't let people 
do whatever they want. But I think people should be allowed to control their

own property."

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger at seattletimes.com

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