Wednesday, May 30, 2007

"State, feds enter negotiations over Hanford cleanup"

KOMO-TV - Seattle, Washington
"RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - Federal and state officials entered formal negotiations Wednesday over long-stalled projects to clean up the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, including an over-budget plant to treat highly radioactive waste, and the retrieval of that waste from underground tanks."

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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Too Many LAMIRDS, Not Enough Farm Land in Thurston County?

Keri Brenner, writing in the The Olympian, reports on the efforts by Thurston County to come into compliance with a 2005 decision by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board that found the county's Comprehensive Plan created too many LAMIRDS (Limited Areas of More Intense Rural Development) and had established criteria for the designation of agricultural lands that did not protect enough resource lands.

While still appealing the decision, the county is proposing to down-zone about half of fifty current LAMIRDs to allow only one home per five acres. Quoting Ms. Brenner's article:

Under the first of the two county proposals, about 12,000 acres of high-density-pockets in the county would be “down-zoned” to 1 unit per 5 acres. The 12,000 acres represent about half of a total 21,000 acres now zoned at densities of 1 or 2 units per acre or 1 unit per 2 acres.

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Monday, May 07, 2007

Zoning Issues in Kittitas County

Although, according to Darryl Piercy, director of the county Community Development Services Department, over 96% of Kittitas County is zoned to require 20 acres or more for a home to be built, litigation and controversy is accompanying the county's efforts to allow land outside of urban areas to be zoned to allow one home on three acres. Opponents, including Futurewise, are insisting on at least five acres per home in the area now zoned for three acres. Read all about it in an article by Mike Johnston, senior writer for the Daily Record.

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