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Observations on the fate of GMA and the future of land use policy in Jefferson County AM The fate of GMA and land use policy in Jefferson County
appears to be hanging on the BOCC election once again. Here is the skinny: There has been a HUGE "last-ditch" effort underway to get a collection of major revisions to the County's poorly written and often contradictory GMA Comp Plan rammed through before Dan Harpole leaves office. Unfortunately, the UDC that is being developed to replace the regulations and processes in the adopted Comp Plan is not a very good piece of work either. Very few people have a clue what it really says or what its contradictions and omissions are likely to actually prohibit or allow, or why a lot of the clauses are in there at all. It looks to me like an urban development standard taken from (and appropriate to) a largely urbanized county has been very roughly superimposed on our rural county with little effort to harmonize it with our adopted Comp Plan. Question: Why our Dan and Richard pushing for its adoption? Answer: Because they fear what will happen if the majority on the BOCC shifts again. My property has Michelle's signs on its corners, right? IMHO, a Michelle victory does not guarantee that a good UDC will be adopted, but it can sure reduce the pressure to rush into adopting another sloppy collection of code language in order to avoid the deeper devil of having no regulation at all. Why is this the case? Because it appears that Glen Huntingford (the sole commissioner who openly questions the quality of the UDC) opposes passage of the UDC and is counting on regaining a majority position against land use regulation when and if Dan Titterness wins. You want to see unplanned growth and sprawl in Jefferson County accelerate like a funnycar? Then ignore this crucial BOCC election and watch those two attempt to dismantle approximately ten years of catastrophically expensive community planning efforts. Caveat: Predicting elections from polls is about as scientific as predicting weather from examination of chicken guts. Joe Breskin 346 Hudson Point Port Townsend, WA (360) 385 3771 airstream@olympus.net www.breskin.com |