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Did You Know?


T*he proposed Critical Areas Ordinance will allow DDES to extort 65% of your property in exchange for permission to use the other 35%.
T*he new rules apply to new construction, additions, remodels, and proposed changes in land use.
*The new buffers can be as large as 3,700 feet. That is 986 acres for one spotted owl nest.
*A one-acre bog or fen will consume an additional 11.5 acres of perfectly good land for its buffer.
*You can clean agricultural drainage without a clearing and grading permit as long as it has been approved as part of your farm plan. Mitigation will be required.
*Adaptive management is much touted but it only works one way. If King County changes its mind down the road, the landowner will be responsible for making the newly mandated changes to the plan. King County is under no obligation to correct regulations that result in unintended and detrimental consequences to property owners or to the environment. It’s Sensitive Areas Ordinance deja-vu!
*Only maintenance, repair and limited replacement of structures is allowed in the new buffers. If your home is located in one of the many new buffers and burns or is destroyed by earthquake, it is unlikely that you will be permitted to rebuild.
*The ordinances give broad legislative powers to DDES and DNRP via administrative rules in violation of Washington State laws such as RCW.36.70.550-670.
*The bureaucrats contend that the affordable housing provisions of the GMA don’t apply to rural areas. The new ordinance provides for a reduction of buffer sizes in urban areas if 50% of the houses built are valued at $252,000 (affordable?) or less.
*Big developers can choose to pay a fee in lieu of mitigation. The fees are to be paid into a fund that can be used for enforcement. Bribes used to be illegal, didn’t they?
*Best available science does not differentiate between urban and rural areas. The decision to treat the two areas differently was made by the seven members of the Critical Areas Ordinance Policy Group. [see “Democracy in Action” page 3]
*Rural Stewardship Plans are touted as a way that landowners can reduce the size of the huge buffers called for in the ordinance. But ... in order to get a buffer reduction you must give up use of 85% of your property. [see Harry Reinert quote, “Possible restrictions outrage landowners”, Seattle Times, April 15, 2004, p. B6]
*The bulk of the new regulations apply only to the 15% of the land area of King County that is in between the urban areas (25%) and the forest production area (60%). If they confiscated all the land in unincorporated King County and turned it back into forest, the percentage of forest cover in King County would raise from 60% to 75%. The urban 25% will be just as devoid of fish and wildlife habitat as it is now.
*A blue heron rookery gets a 48-acre buffer.
*A red-tailed hawk gets 7.6 acres if she lives in the rural area but nothing if she should decide to nest inside the urban growth