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Water and Growth
Tuesday, October 10, 2000 OPINION
OUR VIEWS: Growth limits insufficient
How much longer can Thurston County accommodate continued population growth without ruining the environment and sacrificing our cherished quality of life ?
That's the central question Olympian reporter John Dodge has explored during the past year in his excellent series of stories -- Where do we grow from here?
It's clear from Dodge's reporting that the crush of new residents are having a detrimental impact on our surroundings. Despite well-intentioned laws to curb urban sprawl and channel growth into incorporated cities, we're losing farmland and wildlife habitat.
Rivers and streams that were once pristine, are fouled with pollution. Our roads are clogged with single-occupancy cars and groundwater resources are showing gradual increases in nitrate levels.
So, where do we grow from here?
We believe it's time to ratchet up the environmental protections another notch.
This newspaper has been a strong supporter of the state's Growth Management Act since its adoption a decade ago. Extremely controversial at the time -- and still attacked today -- the central premise behind the legislation was to force elected officials to do a better job of protecting the environment while accommodating an influx of new residents and businesses.
The mandate required city officials to draw a circle around their community and say, in essence, "This is where we will funnel growth."
The concept was to set firm urban-growth boundaries, increase densities in those areas, end sprawl and keep rural areas rural.
The Growth Management Act required cities to adopt comprehensive plans and tie those plans to transportation planning and other services such as the extension of sewer and water services.
The state legislation forced elected officials in adjoining jurisdictions to work hand-in-hand. The industrial park in one city, for example, cannot bump up against a residential neighborhood in the adjoining city.
We have steadfastly objected to repeated attempts to unravel the Growth Management Act.
It's clear, however, that the state law isn't bringing us the kind of results we had hoped for.
But, before we urge the state Legislature to make specific changes to the act, we would like to see local cities and county rethink their implementation methods and utilize tools that have proven more successful in other areas of the state. Coordination of policies and regulations between the county and cities is of utmost importance.
In the first installment in this growth package, Dodge laid out for Olympian readers how South Sound has been unable to put the brakes on urban sprawl. An alarming 40 percent of the building permits issued in Thurston County since the Growth Management Act was passed have been issued in the rural area.
Thurston County's zoning of one unit per 5 acres hasn't been sufficient to stop sprawl.
It's time for county commissioners to reopen that issue and get serious about the preservation of farm land and open space.
Dodge's second installment showed that growth is not paying for growth. Hundreds of homes built in the 1990s in rural portions of the county have paid next to nothing for services such as roads, schools and parks.
County commissioners have been averse to imposing impact fees despite the fact that South Sound residents want newcomers to pay their fair share. It's time for commissioners to rethink impact fees.
Cities, too, have their problems -- perhaps most notably in the area of protecting rivers and streams that traverse city boundaries.
Doug Baker, Tumwater city administrator, said it best, "The Growth Management Act is running headlong into efforts to protect salmon in urban areas."
Those conflicts, including serious questions about the tolerance of streams to stormwater runoff, need to be addressed -- quickly.
And, yes, there are things we as individuals can do to enhance our community. We can plant a variety of trees in our yards and hang bird feeders and bird houses to help replace lost habitat.
We must get out of our single-occupancy vehicles and make better use of flex time, carpooling, mass transit and telecommuting.
And if we want to maintain our quality of life and live in a healthy, enriching environment, we must be willing to pay for it.
In recent elections, South Sound voters have rejected a series of no-growth or slow-growth candidates -- Bernie Friedman, Kathleen Rooney, Steve Langer, Jim Weber.
That tells us that residents don't want to stop others from moving here, but prefer managed growth. Continued adherence to the Growth Management Act -- with stricter zoning limits, impact fees, improved stream buffers and emphasis on public education are steps in the right direction. The Olympian Copyright 2000 back to main Water and Growth index
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