Dear HCN,
As a Seattle-suburbs
hobby farmer (horses), widow of a lawyer, mother of four college
graduates, and (unpaid) legislative liaison for the King County
Property Rights Alliance, I am also one of those “people with an
ideological predisposition who are most vulnerable to independence,
anti-government and property rights slogans.”
(Hoo-ha!)
The condescension of the professional
planners quoted in your Dec. 26 article on Montanans’ rebellion
against government control of private land is unbelievable. But not
surprising, given my own experience with those same planner types
here. Unfortunately, because of the overwhelming majority of
liberal voters in Seattle whose expressed desire – -vision,” they
call it – is to preserve unsullied our private land for their
weekend touring enjoyment, we rural landowners came out the big
losers in our own recently adopted comprehensive
plan.
That plan controls our land use from the
width of riparian corridors and wetlands buffers (from which our
livestock must be fenced) to the requirement for clustering of the
miniscule amount of rural housing allowed after our massive
downzonings, with 60-80 percent of our land to be left in
untouchable native growth.
The plan pays lip
service to promoting farming and forestry, but the
back-to-pre-European-natural-vegetation preservation/restoration
requirements of that same plan preclude the clearing that is
essential for new farms, and hampers existing farming/forestry.
There are over 160 pages in the comprehensive plan, plus an
inch-and-a-half stack of implementing development regulations, all
of which leave us with little but the right to watch the brush grow
and pay ever-rising taxes. The controls apply to unincorporated
King County, comprising around 80 percent of the county’s land
area.
How High Country News ever garnered a
reputation for being “balanced” I don’t know. Its
articles/editorials reflect the elitist, control-all attitude of
professional planners/environmental extremists whose demands are
rapidly decimating both our constitutional rights and our nation’s
economy.
Maxine
Keesling
Woodinville,
Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Land-use planning can be a nightmare.
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