Officials going to bat for ballfields

By Emily Heffter
Times Snohomish County bureau

JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES North Snohomish Little League is playing on its new 10-field complex, built on agricultural land for $500,000.

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Snohomish County officials hope for a state-law change to legalize ballfields on protected agricultural land, and they've pointed to the 1,300-strong North and South Snohomish Little Leagues to illustrate the problem.

But the leagues' fields would be prohibited under county laws, too.

County regulations forbid the fields on shoreline property, wedged between the Snohomish and Pilchuck rivers, so the leagues would have to demonstrate that all their structures were flood-proof because they're in a flood plain.

"Nothing seems to be easy anymore, especially for these poor people and these ballfields," said Snohomish County planning director Craig Ladiser.

County Executive Aaron Reardon's new administration decided to crack down on illegal ballfields on agricultural land. The fields are common in Snohomish County, but county government officials have been letting them go unregulated for years.

This summer is the North Snohomish Little League's first in its 10-field complex, which cost $500,000 to build.

The prospect of the fields being shut down has ignited another round of lobbying for a state bill that would allow baseball and soccer fields on protected farmland in the state. Opponents of the bill, which the Legislature has failed to pass two years in a row, say farmland is not a good place for recreation. They cite hazards to kids — farming chemicals, dust and equipment — and dangers to agricultural land, which they say will be lost forever if ballfields are allowed on it.

Supporters of the bill, including Reardon and all five Snohomish County Council members, say urban land is too expensive for nonprofit clubs to afford. There is a shortage of ballfields in the county that can't be filled without using farmland for fields, they say.

Ladiser said he doesn't think the county rules will be a problem.

North Snohomish Little League President Carol Aichele said county officials had warned her there were still local regulations to abide by.

"From what I'm gathering, the big hurdle is the ag-land restriction," she said.

Last week, a delegation led by Snohomish County Council Chairman John Koster, R-Arlington, and three staff members from the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development discussed other possibilities for finding land for recreation. No pact was reached, but Koster hopes the state officials will help the county lobby for the state bill.

The Little Leagues have all but decided not to agree to a deal proposed last week by state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, and Kristin Kelly, an organizer for 1000 Friends of Washington Snohomish County.

Kelly and Dunshee, who are against the state-law change, offered to help the leagues get a county rezone if the parents would agree not to lobby for the bill in Olympia.

Other state legislators are also courting Little League parents. Sen. Dave Schmidt, R-Mill Creek, met with parents last Friday, and Dunshee plans a meeting this Friday.

"It is a hot topic right now," Aichele said.

Emily Heffter: 425-783-0624 or eheffter@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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