[Capr-announce] CAPR News June, 2007

[Jeff Wright]

CAPR  NEWS


THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FROM CITIZENS’ ALLIANCE FOR PROPERTY RIGHTS
June, 2007


House Size Restrictions Being Explored For King County Comp Plan

The King County Council is in the middle of a major review for the 2008 King
County Comprehensive Plan.  In April, the Council published a list of topics
to consider for update, which runs five pages long.  It runs the gamut from
synchronizing policies to major initiatives to individual parcel land use
proposals.  However, every line item will affect properties and property
rights.  To read the list of topics, click here.
<http://www.metrokc.gov/ddes/COMPPLAN/2008/TopicalAreas-08CouncilApp.pdf>

“Examine the issue of limiting the size of houses on agricultural lands.”
This gem is in Chapter 3 – Rural Legacy and Natural Resources Lands and ties
in neatly with the County’s stated goal of restricting land use in the rural
areas.  King County Executive Ron Sims has a stated goal of reducing
development to 4% per year, down from an earlier 15%.  If the currently
stated level is at 6%, that means the County still needs to wring 2% out
somebody.  And it appears that one of those “somebodies” may be you if you
live on Ag designated land.

Currently, the King County Agricultural Commission is considering whether or
not to recommend house size restrictions when Ag land owners sell their
development rights under the County’s Farm Preservation Plan.  That may be
goofy but at least it is voluntary.  That proposed house size restriction
would be 1950 square feet, the median of all homes on Ag land currently.
Given that the same county staff is working this proposal, one can assume
that the proposed Comp Plan restriction would be similar.  And it would be
involuntary!

Make no mistake, this will significantly devalue Ag land parcels!  One of
the hard and fast rules in the economics of real estate is that the
improvements (the house, etcetera) has to equal a certain minimum percentage
of the cost value of the land or the land is worth less.  This relationship
does change slightly over time, but in this case that relationship will get
worse rather than better.  Not only will you lose money initially, you will
lose more in the future!

The draft version of the 2008 Comp Plan is due out in September of this
year.  Theoretically, this allows almost a year of “discussion”.  The
reality is, however, that once proposed policies hit print the ship has
pretty much left the dock.  The time to protest is now.  CAPR urges all who
care about property rights to take a few minutes to email their council
member and strongly urge them to oppose house size restrictions.  Especially
those of you who have urban council members.  To contact your King County
councilperson, click here
<http://www.metrokc.gov/council/members/members.htm> .

If worse comes to worse, Ag landowners should take heart.  Your  reward is
that your land has been designated “Legacy Land” by King County!


More Comp Plan Follies

As they say, “the devil is in the details” and some of the Comp Plan review
topics are fuzzy enough to hide a tanker truck under.  Consider this item
for instance.  “Review policies and investigate ways to improve and promote
social and mental health through land use planning
”.  Will staff members
discover that having a little breathing room is a pleasant way to live or
will they find new “science” confirming that living in a human anthill is
good for the soul?  Or this one
”Review and update text and policies to
ensure continued protection and maintenance of biodiversity”.  Something
tells us that there could be a herd of boogiemen hiding in that one.  And
were not talking about the big “S” – sprawl.

Sarcasm aside, it is hard to know for sure what is brewing in the bowels of
the County.  When the draft plan is published, it needs to be reviewed
quickly and thoroughly!


Rodney McFarland and Pam Sias Honored

Rodney McFarland and Pam Sias were honored at the last CAPR King Co. Chapter
meeting for their service to CAPR.  Both are founding members of the
organization and have worked tirelessly in support of our property rights.

Rodney was a director on the CAPR Board when CAPR was founded in early 2003.
He became president later in October of 2003 after Steve Hammond resigned
the position to run for King Co. Council.  Starting from scratch, Rodney was
a driving force in forming and growing CAPR, CAPR Political Action Committee
(PAC) and CAPR Legal Fund.  If this wasn’t enough, he has also been
instrumental, along with the Board, in guiding the various campaigns CAPR
has waged in pursuit of property rights.  After neglecting his personal
businesses for over two years to promote CAPR activities, Rod has opted to
get back to “minding the store”.  He remains, however, as Treasurer of the
Legal Fund and our head I.T. guy.

Pam also started as a Director and later became Treasurer of CAPR and the
PAC.  These are on-going jobs in normal times, but are crucial to the
organization when in the heat of a campaign.  Money is crucial in politics
and so is your treasurer.  For weeks and months on end during the King Co.
CAO fight and the I-933 campaign, Pam picked up your contributions and made
weekly deposits along with weekly Public Disclosure report filings required
by law.  Along with that went a lot of data entry work into CAPR’s
computers.  These tasks were a lot of heavy lifting and she made it look
easy.  To illustrate that point, note that she is in the process of training
two people to fill her shoes so that she can slow down.

Thank you both!


Odds and Ends

Snohomish Co. CAO          Snohomish Co. continues to work on the update of
its Critical Areas Ordinance.  The target date for adoption has been pushed
back repeatedly as the County works with all interested parties to try to
come up with the policy.  While they will still be extreme, buffers in the
Snohomish Co. CAO will be 25% smaller, on average, then those in the King
Co. CAO.  Unfortunately, and maybe not surprisingly, a black hat has ridden
onto the set in the eleventh hour.  Due to fact that buffer widths are not
what the Washington Dep’t of Ecology wants, DOE is trying to force extensive
“wildlife corridors” into the plan.  It will be interesting to see if DOE
can bully the County, either before or after passage, to get its way.  DOE
obviously has no interest in the fact that the Growth Management Act states
that this is to be a “local process”.

The new target date for passage of the Snohomish Co. CAO is September of
this year.

I-25             Citizens for Accountable Elections has filed more than
74,500 signatures in support of King Co. Initiative 25, which should be
enough to qualify it for the November ballot if adopted by the King County
Council.  The aim of the initiative is to make the Director of Elections in
King Co. an elected, non-partisan position as it is in most other counties
in the state.  But disgruntled voters shouldn’t get too excited just yet.
The King Co. Democratic Party has vowed to fight the initiative and the
majority of the council members are
 Democrats.  Stay tuned.

And more house size restrictions?             The cities of Seattle and
Bellevue are also considering limiting house sizes.  This in response to
large, new homes being built next to smaller, older homes in established
neighborhoods.  Certainly, this disparity of sizes is not pleasant for some,
but aren’t we all being asked to give a little for these “benefits” of
density.  Limiting house sizes will, of course, help to maintain another
“benefit” of density.  That being skyrocketing home prices.  We can only
hope that voters wake up to the many “benefits” of density sooner rather
than later.



CAPR Meeting Schedule


The next meeting of the King Co. chapter of CAPR will be held at 7:00 PM,
Thursday July 5th.  The meeting site is the IHOP restaurant located at 1433
NW Sammamish Rd. in Issaquah.  Consider coming early for dinner and
conversation.


Support the Cause!


As a volunteer organization, CAPR depends on our supporters and Board to get
things done.  If you have time to donate, please contact us.  If you would
like to make a financial contribution, you can do so with this link:
http://www.proprights.org/donate.php.


Jeff Wright
Secretary, CAPR
E-mail:        jeff at proprights.org <mailto:jeff at proprights.org>
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