Report acknowledges discontent over rural land-use policies in King County

Residents of rural areas "are not fairly represented" because they must comply with land-use regulations adopted by Metropolitan King County Council members they don't elect, the Municipal League of King County said in a report issued Tuesday after two years of study.

Most of the nine council members live in cities but enact laws that govern life in rural and urban unincorporated areas, the Muni League said in the report, titled "Rights, Wrongs and Reforms."

That means "urban perspectives and interests nearly always prevail" in setting rural land-use policies, the report said.

Longtime Muni League volunteers Putnam Barber and Lucy Steers co-chaired the nine-member committee that wrote the report. It said many rural property owners are unhappy about restrictions on what they can do with their land while many city-dwellers don't like regional growth-management policies that encourage dense redevelopment where they live.

The document was released a week after former County Councilmember Dow Constantine was sworn in as county executive after promising to "reform" county government, including its land-use permitting agency, the Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES). Constantine has created a director of customer-service position in his office, but hasn't laid out details of changes he plans to make at DDES.

DDES sent layoff notices to 40 employees after the County Council last month rejected then-Executive Kurt Triplett's proposal to raise permit-review fees from about $140 an hour to $190.

Fifteen of those workers could keep their jobs if the council were to agree to a smaller fee increase early next year, DDES Director Stephanie Warden said.

The Muni League report said a possible solution to inadequate rural representation would be to create state-authorized "townships" in rural areas to provide local services, including land-use review.

It also suggested the Legislature convene a Local Governance Study Commission to make recommendations on how to fund services in unincorporated areas.

Some grievances have been resolved by the rural ombudsman, a position created by the County Council in 2005, the report said. And for disputes that are appealed to court, it suggested they be handled by a new land-use court within Superior Court.

DDES director Warden said she hadn't yet read the Municipal League report but took issue with one recommendation: that more of the agency's work be funded through general-fund taxes rather than permit fees. DDES is now supported almost exclusively through fees.

"A decision was made about 10 years ago to wean the permitting away from the general fund with the theory that growth pays for growth and that it be a user fee. I just don't see the county going in the opposite direction," Warden said.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com