PORT ANGELES — A long debate over Palo Verde’s place in the Sequim Urban Growth Area has resulted in a compromise.
The three Clallam County commissioners on Tuesday accepted a hybrid version of an option to remove 75 acres of a 101-acre neighborhood west of Sequim from the urban growth area, or UGA.
Corner parcels that border city utility lines will remain in the growth area.
“I think the planning really dictates leaving this all in the urban growth area,” said Commissioner Steve Tharinger.
“But there’s been a consistent opposition to being included [in the UGA], and I think we need to respect that.”
The commissioners adopted a hybrid version of one of three alternatives for the neighborhood that essentially allows property owners who want to remain in the urban growth area to stay, and those who want out to leave.
New boundary
Taking comments from an hourlong public hearing into account, a final urban growth boundary for the neighborhood will be discussed, drawn up and voted on next week.
The board authorized Tharinger to work with county staff to develop the boundary.
Tharinger and fellow Commissioner Mike Chapman said leaving the urban growth area would be a “mistake.”
“But that’s their choice,” Tharinger said.
An urban growth area is unincorporated land adjacent to an established city like Sequim or an unincorporated village like nearby Carlsborg.
Under the Growth Management Act, cities may extend public utilities to or annex land in an urban growth area.
It would take at least a year of appeals for a village to return to a UGA and regain access to city sewer and water services.
“I think it’s a mistake for people to be out of the urban growth area,” Chapman said.
“I think that in 20 years, they’re going to regret it. . . . But we do live in a representative democracy and we’ve had people that have petitioned us over and over again.”
Though he disagrees with the petitioners, Chapman said he supports their right to petition their government.
He also said county staff, its Planning Commission and the commissioners have spent considerable time on a relatively small neighborhood.
“Quite frankly, today is the day to make a decision,” Chapman said.
The neighborhood in question is located south of West Hendrickson Road and east of North Priest Road, and includes the Palo Verde subdivision.
Three alternatives
The Clallam County Planning Commission last month held a public hearing on three alternatives for the neighborhood.
The options were:
• Alternative 1. No change. It keeps the whole neighborhood in the urban growth area and retains Sequim urban residential zoning, which allows up to five homes per acre, and recommends an agreement with the city of Sequim to pursue phased annexation.
• Alternative 2. Removes 75 acres and 65 lots from the urban growth area and rezones them rural 5, which allows a maximum of one home per 4.8 acres. It keeps about 27 acres in the northeast and southeast corners of the neighborhood in the Sequim urban residential zone.
• Alternative 3. Same as No. 2 except it changes the removed UGA to rural 1, or one dwelling per acre.
After taking more public comment on Nov. 18, the Planning Commission recommended a modified alternative 2 to remove three additional lots Clallam County and Sequim planning staff had earlier recommended for alternative 1, or no change.
“I do not wish to be removed from the urban growth area,” said Joe Borden, who has lived at the southern edge of the neighborhood since 1986.
“If I’m removed from the urban growth area and something happens to my well or my septic system, I have very limited options of what I can or cannot do.”
He said there are advantages and disadvantages to both.
“Leave us alone.” Borden said in closing. “In my personal opinion, I prefer to have options in the future that I can use if something happens to what I have.”
Palo Verde became a part of the county’s attempt to comply with the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board, which ruled in April 2008 that the neighborhood and others near Sequim were zoned too rural to be so close to the city.
‘Upzoning’ ordered
It was ordered that they be “upzoned” from allowing two dwellings per acre to five dwellings.
Some Palo Verde residents objected.
Judy Larson, who has long championed removal from the urban growth area, said the neighborhood’s rural characteristics should be preserved.
“The majority of the property owners affected by this designation actually prefer to be removed,” Larson told the commissioners. “We would hope that you would honor that.”
Larson said Sequim has other places to expand.
She said on-site septic systems, if properly maintained, are just as effective and last just as long as a municipal sewer system like Sequim’s.
Dennis Lefevre, Sequim planning director, said the City Council was split 3-3 on alternatives 1 and 2, and voted 4-2 against alternative 3 during Monday’s City Council meeting.
Mike McAleer, a Sequim real estate broker, testified in favor of keeping the neighborhood within the UGA. He said property owners would face major headaches if their septic system failed outside of an urban growth area.
After a health emergency is declared, the property owners become responsible for the total cost of bringing the sewer system to their property, McAleer warned.
He said the Growth Management Act prevents the city from extending water and sewer service outside of an urban growth area. He added that the Palo Verde water system is already maxed out.
The expansion of the Sequim UGA for the Battelle science laboratory was necessary, Larson said, because it will accommodate “good jobs” and “good science.”
“Our area is one that the majority of the people do not want expansion,” Larson said during a second round of public testimony.
“They want to retain the quality of the life and residential pattern that always existed when most of us purchased the land that we have.”
After the public hearing on the Sequim UGA, the commissioners held two more public hearings.
They voted to approve a list of amendments to county policies and to approve an ordinance to create a parks and recreation zone for all county-managed parks.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.