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Rules get tougher for Willow Grove developer

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 6:20 AM PDT

By Tony Lystra
tlystra@tdn.com

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Despite a developer's objections, Cowlitz County officials decided Tuesday to apply newer and more restrictive environmental regulations to a plan to build upscale homes on Willow Grove.

Pac Rim Properties, of Camas, Wash., argued against the decision during a public hearing Tuesday because the new laws aren't even on the books yet.

But county officials said it seemed unwise to apply the old rules when new ones are so close to being ratified.

The decision means Pac Rim will have to conduct more extensive studies showing how its proposed 150-home subdivision would affect wetlands on the Columbia River island, said Lisa Hendriksen, the county planning department's assistant manager.

The regulations also restrict how close homes can be built to existing wetlands, Hendriksen said, which means the decision could affect the development's size.

Michael Simon, a Pac Rim attorney, said he believes the company will be able to build all of the planned homes. But he said there was no way to be positive at this stage.

Hendriksen said she didn't know how much of the 245 acres that Pac Rim wants to develop could be considered wetlands. And Pac Rim hasn't submitted a plan for its subdivision yet, she said, so it's unclear how, exactly, the new environmental rules will affect Pac Rim's proposal.

Still, the debate showed a county government hustling to keep up with the growth that has descended on the area in recent years.

The county has been revising environmental regulations and is poised to begin updating its comprehensive plan for the first time since the 1970s. Developers, naturally, aren't content to wait out the process, and the county is struggling to decide how to apply the rules on the fly.

Tuesday's discussion focused largely on a set of laws known as the Critical Areas Ordinance. Building and planning department officials have been working for months to update the regulations, which control development of wetlands, landslide zones and other environmentally sensitive areas. Hendrikson said Tuesday that the county's commissioners could finalize the new regulations within the next three months.

Pac Rim has asked the commissioners to allow it to build $450,000 homes on land that had been set aside for agriculture. Eighty additional acres, controlled by other property owners, would also be set aside for new homes. The commissioners tentatively agreed to the plan last month.

But the changes are subject to commissioners' approval of a contract between the county and Pac Rim, which would require the developer to build a sewage treatment plant to serve the additional homes. The contract, known as a "developer's agreement," also requires Pac Rim to study how the subdivision would impact stormwater runoff and wildlife habitat.

At a public hearing Tuesday, during which commissioners spent four hours reviewing the contract, Pac Rim argued that its plans should not be bound by the new environmental laws.

"The reason we don't want it is ... we've been looking at the development under the old Critical Areas Ordinance," Simon said. "Just as a policy matter for us, we'd rather be under something we're certain about rather than something we're uncertain about."

But Ron Marshall, the county's attorney told Pac Rim's executives: "It's obviously been the intent of staff all along that the development of this property would be regulated under the soon to-be-developed Critical Areas Ordinance."

And in an interview after the hearing, Hendriksen said, "It's not prudent to vest a developer under one ordinance when we know it's changing and it's in the process of changing."

Commissioners are expected to take up the issue again April 15.

Previous

Reader wrote on Mar 26, 2008 9:52 AM:

" It's a giant step in the right direction, but wouldn't it have been prudent to not approve the building at all until these laws or regulations had taken affect? Hindsight can be a pain. "

Woody wrote on Mar 26, 2008 12:10 PM:

" Who is going to pay to pump the resulting sewage to the existing facilitys??? Septic systems for existing homes are already in trouble during the rainy season, especialy beings as the land that should not be developed is below sealevel and water-saturated.
County residents should not be made to pay the price of a developers greed and lack of concern for the natural habitat. "

FOOLISH wrote on Mar 26, 2008 3:16 PM:

" How foolish to build any more houses behind a dike and under the level of the Columbia river. "

Amazed wrote on Mar 26, 2008 7:56 PM:

" It is amazing to me that before a wetlands study was completed that this plan has gone this far. In my opinion. No McMansions should be built on wet,soggy,waterlogged ground just so some rich folks can say they live on an island. "

sam fowler wrote on Mar 27, 2008 10:15 AM:

" my family has lived in the longview area before it was ever thougt of.lake sacajewea was fowlers slough first.for a developer to do this[cover the grove with homes].first,how much fill or dredge spoils will it take to make these homes and sewage at a safe distance from flooding or saturating the water table with grey water alone.now the wildlife there is way more important,I have seen,elk,many deer,wood ducks,owls,bald eagles and that was when they still allowed DDT.of late[1990 or so there was a GOLDEN EAGLE which is probably on endangered list,all other types such as sand hil cranes snow geese,the famous dusky[lesser canada goose]and the honker[the big goose]stop the daddy warbuck developer before longview becomes a sesspool of homes residents donot let the mighty dollar buy your integrity. "

to Amazed wrote on Mar 27, 2008 7:17 PM:

" Who said anything about a wetland study not being completed? Where did this info come from? "