9/11/08

Rally set to protest rural planning process

7-Lakes and the Warm Beach Stewards have invited Snohomish County residents to join a scheduled “Rally for Better Planning” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, September 20. The rally will be held outside the Lakewood Road and Marine Drive entrance to Warm Beach. A picnic will follow in the Warm Beach Park.

The event will bring attention to what the groups are calling ineffective and bad planning from the Planning and Development Services (PDS) division of Snohomish County.

Warm Beach was chosen for the event, as several recent cases in the area make it a “microcosm of bad planning,” said 7-Lakes chair Ellen Hiatt Watson.

The Warm Beach Stewards won their fight against the SoundView development, approved by PDS, which would have put a 100-unit apartment building in a rural area against code, according to the hearing examiner who denied the application. The SoundView developers are appealing the decision to Superior Court, forcing the non-profit opposition group to continue fighting. 7-Lakes has joined the Stewards.

Another example of bad planning, according to the group’s organizers, is PDS Director Craig Ladiser’s code interpretation allowing duplexes to be built on substandard rural lots. Local citizens, supported by 7-Lakes and the Stewards, have appealed the decision in Superior Court. 7-Lakes has asked County Executive Aaron Reardon and Ladiser to consider making the same decision through another process that would include the public and allow for an appeal through the hearing examiner. No response has been received, though the request was made in early August.

These citizen groups and individuals continue to attempt to work with the county and have asked the executive for a private meeting to address the issues. No meeting has been granted.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” said Watson. “We’re not asking to address issues in litigation, we’re asking that the Executive consider the complaint of rural citizens that they are being excluded from the planning process. How can PDS ask us to help them define rural when it’s becoming clear that what happens in the rural area is really of little concern to them?”

For more information about the September 20 rally or other rural development concerns, call Watson at (360) 618-0448 or visit www.7-lakes.org.

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