Land-use rulings draw ire of Clallam property owners
By Jim Casey, Peninsula Daily News
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At a public workshop of the county planning commission last week, an 81-year-old farmer complained that he could not subdivide his land — now split into five-acre lots — into the 2½-acre plots he was entitled to before a Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board issued its ruling last spring.
Morris Quinn farms 70 acres of land northwest of Sequim and wants to subdivide some of it for his retirement — if there is any retirement for a man whose son-in-law said has worked 25,000 days with only 100 days off.
Sad stories emerge
Stories like Quinn's are surfacing as rural landowners contemplate the growth board rulings at the behest of a Seattle-based group of urban-sprawl opponents and a band of residents just west of Port Angeles.
Their objections to the county's comprehensive plan and how it meets the state Growth Management Act prompted the growth board to:
The last category encompasses 22,000 acres of land.
Appeal and comply
The county has appealed the Carlsborg and R2/RW2 decisions to Clallam County Superior Court, although it must continue on a parallel track to comply with the growth board's rulings.
The appeal probably will take a year, but the county must adopt a compliance resolution by Oct. 23.
The growth board will hold a hearing on it Dec. 15.
The county also will seek a 90-day extension beyond the October deadline for the R2/RW2 areas, claiming they reflect a variety of conditions that don't fit a single, simple downzoning.
In the meantime, though, it has imposed interim downzones of the R2 and RW2 areas to R5 and RW5.
These zones permit one dwelling per 5 acres.
The county chose downzoning over issuing a moratorium on all development inside the zones.
Vested rights remain
People who already have split their lots are free from the rulings, but those who haven't done so, could be forbidden to do so.
That's the plight of one man who told planning commissioners Wednesday he'd bought 6¼ acres on Lavender Ridge Lane, intending to split it with his sister.
"I've got $480,000 involved in this property," he said, "and now we've got the rug pulled out from under us."
Christy Mitchell, Quinn's daughter, said her father had farmed the property since 1953.
"We purchased it with our life," she said — and noted that the farm is surrounded by lots of 1 acre and 2 acres.
However, Harley Oien, secretary of the Dry Creek Coalition of homeowners who hauled the county in front of the growth board, said Clallam County was reaping the results of 18 years of evading the Growth Management Act.
The county also has spent $229,000 in outside legal fees when it could have obeyed the law, Oien said.
Next steps
THE CLALLAM COUNTY Planning Commission will meet Wednesday to start drafting a compliance resolution to satisfy the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board.
The session will start at 6:30 p.m. in the commissioners' hearing room of the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St.
After-hours entrance to the room is through a door just west of the main courthouse entrance on Fourth Street.
The planning commission will continue to work on the draft Sept. 10.
It then will hold public hearings Sept. 17 and 18 in Port Angeles and Forks, and face final passage Sept. 24.
Clallam County commissioners will take up the issue at public hearings Oct. 14 and 15 in Port Angeles, Sequim, Clallam Bay/Sekiu, and Forks
County commissioners will adopt a final version Oct. 21.
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: August 31. 2008 9:00PM