Spend the Time to Learn About I-933

The “No on 933” campaign has assembled a web site that is well worth visiting, particularly if you are still on the fence regarding Initiative 933. It is located here.

I want to particularly take the opportunity to point out some of the points I believe are especially important to understand.

As a member of the GNA, I was particularly concerned about some of the points made by the No on 933 campaign’s page entitled “It’s Bad for Neighborhoods.”

  • I-933 Will Increase Taxes and Cut Community Services
  • I-933 Threatens Property Rights
  • Say Goodbye to Neighborhood Zoning – “The result will be ‘open season’ on neighborhoods across the state.”
  • Say Hello to more Sprawl and Congestion
  • I-933 Is Downright Un-Neighborly – “I-933 does NOT require any notice to neighbors before the regulations are waived.”
  • I-933 changes no “eminent domain” laws

I made a point also to read the page entitled “Debunking the Backers.”

Well worth also mentioning is this site, which assembled a series called “This Land: The Northwest Property Rights Movement“.

Initiative-watchers are pointing out that this initiative is similar to initiatives currently trying to gather steam in Idaho and Montana. Also similar is the rhetoric being employed: All make a big deal about the abuses of eminent domain. However, none of them do a single thing to address eminent domain. And all three measures use the same bait-and-switch tactic to mislead to voters. For those of you who may be curious about one of the prime movers in the multi-state effort which spawned I-933, this page will give you a great deal chew on.

If you’re as concerned as I am about the possible impacts of this ill-conceived initiative, please help focus the attention of your neighbors, friends and community groups on I-933. This stuff is complicated and the proponents are counting on our being unwilling to spend event the slightest amount of time to become informed voters. It happened in Oregon; let’s not let in happen in Washington, too.

UPDATE: Read the June 23rd article in The Olympian entitled “Land-use initiative attracts protest“.

Read the prior post about I-933, which was posted on this blog, here.

What are your thoughts about I-933? Click on the “Post a Comment” link, below.

Goodbye to the Blueberry Farm? – UPDATED!

Most residents of this area know of the 40-acre blueberry bog on Steamboat Island Road. It is on the right as you drive north on the peninsula in the vicinity of 49th Lane. It has been a U-Pick or free pick community resource for decades. St. Christopher Church’s Annual Blueberry festival began with church members picking at the blueberry bog.

There are two owners of parcels involved in development plans. MC Construction (working for the owners, Michelle and Danaher Dempsey) and an organization calling itself Blueberry Farms, LLC (represented by Michael Welter) is now in the process of gaining approval for 8 large houses to be clustered on the forested upland portion of the blueberry farm. This is that beautiful section of Evergreen woods that you can see emerging from the blueberry fields at the North center of the bog.

Click here to view copies of the two applications associated with these projects.

Developers plan to log the woods, approximately 8 acres of them, which is where the houses will be built.

Last year the developers created a site plan that showed eight home lots plus two large resource parcels (the blueberry fields themselves), which they intended to donate to a nonprofit so that it could remain a community blueberry farm forever.

Unfortunately, at some point and for some reason not known to us, MC Construction changed their mind and submitted development plans that call for the blueberry fields to be divided into two parcels, each of which includes a small portion of high ground so that a house can be built on it.

In other words, the blueberry fields are about to become someone’s back yard.

To see MC Construction’s web page, promoting this project, click here.

A while back, at the time the blueberry farm owner applied for open space tax designation, the County put a public access requirement on the blueberry fields for the purpose of allowing blueberry picking. However, it appears that loophole clauses (which allow exceptions in the event of owner liability concerns, etc.) will make it unlikely that public access will actually occur once the two parcels belong to individual homeowners.

This could happen prior to this years’ picking season.

Please spread the word that our beloved community farm is endangered.

Because the development was submitted as two separate 4-lot short plats rather than one 8-lot long plat, there is comparatively little opportunity for public input.

However, a flood of letters might get their attention.

UPDATED July 1:

Your comments have helped! The County has transferred both applications to the City of Lacey, for review (since Mr. Welter, one of the applicants involved, is also the County’s Director of Development Services).

Please write or e-mail the new planner in charge of the development:
Ryan Andrews, Associate Planner
City of Lacey Community Development
PO Box 3400
Lacey, WA 98509
Phone: (360) 491-5642
Fax: (360) 438-2669
randrews@ci.lacey.wa.us

Mention the two project numbers: 2005103734 and 2005103728

As the City of Lacey to:

  • Be fair and impartial: Start the development approval process over from the beginning.
  • Specify that the blueberry bog be permanently preserved as community open space.
  • Require that the blueberry fields be platted as separate un-developable critical areas tracts.
  • Require a conservation easement for the blueberry fields to be held by a nonprofit or govt. entity

Ask to be added to the notification list.

Ask that your comments be put on the record for all permit applications associated with the projects. Pending permits include road clearing and grading, forestland conversion, short plat, and SEPA determination. There may be others as well.

You may want also to contact MC Construction to let them know how you feel about their change of plans:

MC Construction Consultants, Inc
PO Box 8478
Lacey, WA 98509
(360) 456-6307
julie@mcconstruction.com

UPDATED June 20: Click here for a copy of our flyer regarding this development. Thank you for any assistance you can provide with the distribution of this flyer to your neighbors and to local organizations with which you may be affiliated.

UPDATED June 30: The Thurston County Agricultural Advisory Committee has weighed in with a letter expressing concern over the use and access of the portions of the blueberry farm contained within the two resource parcels of these development applications. Read their letter here.

Thanks for taking the time to preserve what’s good about our neighborhood.

Not All Shellfish Harvesting is Good for the Sound

It is recognized that healthy shellfish beds are a sign of a generally healthy shoreline. Along our shorelines, residents enjoy not only recreational clamming, but many homeowners either lease their shorelines to shellfish harvesters or seed their shorelines themselves. However, not all harvesting methods are created equal. In particular, Griffin Neighborhood Association member Paul Allen has brought attention to the effects of intensive geoduck harvesting. What he has discovered vividly demonstrates the undesirable effects of intensive aquaculture, both in the short term, in the form of reduced recreational value of the shoreline and in increased risks to public safety, but also in the long-term deterioration of shoreline health and water quality.

Before you lease your shoreline or engage in intensive geoduck harvesting yourself, give some consideration to others who live along and use the shorelines and the ill effects of your harvesting operation on the health of the Puget Sound. In at least one instance, also, we are hearing from a real estate professional the result of intensive geoduck harvesting will be diminished property value.

According to Paul Allen, “From a purely economical standpoint, I will earn more equity over 4-5 five years by keeping my shoreline as pristine and desirable as possible, than I ever could by degrading it for the purpose of short term financial gain associated with intensive geoduck farming.”

We’ll continue to pass more information on to visitors of our web site at http://www.griffinneighbors.org/ as we obtain it.

Read more about the effects of intensive geoduck harvesting on one community’s shoreline at Save Our Shoreline.

UPDATE: Here’s an additional web site, from a group near Zangle Cove, which details the issues around commerical geoduck farming.

More information on the overall state strategy to protect shellfish areas in Puget Sound is available on the Puget Sound Action Team’s Web site.