Good Friday morning to everyone...

County Council Actions: Following my update (below) is an informative email distribution from 1000 Friends of Washington. I have extracted the text of three of the council decisions that I feel are of particularly interest to Sky Valley residents, shown in a burgundy-colored font:

Dear 30.66B Code Revision Stakeholder:

John E. Davis, Transportation Specialist, John.Davis@co.snohomish.wa.us

"See Dick run. See Dick run on Main Street"-- John Dick, Sultan city council candidate running for Postion #5 (against Richard Hill and Jim Flower), will be meeting and greeting folks on Main Street every Saturday from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 PM. (And for those of you who read the last issue of the Valley Review, we're pretty sure Editor Brady Boucher will do the right thing and give John equal and objective "face time" in his paper, considering John was out of town on vacation when Brady's one-and-only request for info was left on John's answering machine. Otherwise, his paper may suffer the same fate as his predecessor's.)

Wetlands Control: Building Official Craig Bruner will offer justification as to why we need tighter fire safety control of these "dangerous" wetland areas.

Staff report on All Hazards Plan: A legal notice ran on August 8, 9 and 10 to solicit consultants to work on this plan, yet we have heard no discussion of it in any council meetings as of this date.

$350,000 Grant for Traveler's Park has apparently been lost. This issue has been placed on the Discussion Agenda.

Building setbacks will be discussed

Attempt to release the J. E. Works (Willow Run developer) bond. Again.

HEARING (Thursday, August 21st at 6:30 PM) - CREATION OF A SURFACE WATER MANAGEMENT UTILITY (Costs to be borne by taxpayers). Our question, "Why doesn't the city create a developer impact fee to defray the cost to the lil' guys?

DRIVSTUEN-ALLEGED VOTER FRAUD (charge forwarded by Auditor's office to the county Prosecutor for review and action). Prosecutor Mark Roe reported that no charges will be filed, and said, "I am sure nobody would suggest we prosecute anyone unless they have clearly committed a crime." Anyone wishing to communicate their opinion of this decision to Mr. Roe may do so via email at: mroe@co.snohomish.wa.us

PLANNING COMMISSION - COMPREHENSIVE PLAN ALTERNATIVES SELECTION: Read our transcription from the Commission's 7-15-03 discussion relative to a growth scenario selection (linked on our front page). Strangely, despite the fact that the bulk of the testimony received in hearings and workshops was for the Commission to select the greatly-misnamed "No Growth" scenario, Commissioners Botting, Dalmasso and Green (and City Administrator Rick Cisar) are urging expanded acreage for our UGA. By the way, the so-called "No Growth" scenario is anything but, and allows for a population expansion of just under 11,000 people, using current UGA boundaries. Annexations, if needed, of course, can and do occur easily here, as we're all aware.

The PC will be discussing and perhaps making their decision this Tuesday, August 19th, beginning at 7:30 PM

AND SPEAKING OF EASY ANNEXATIONS, take a moment or two to drive up the Sultan Basin Road, then turn left (westward) onto 124th Street S.E. and drive to the end. Construction on Garth York's 10-acre Rosewood Estates development is moving right along. We, of course, do not think this is an "improvement" over the pristine rural countryside that previously existed, but others, I'm certain, will disagree. One thing that struck me yesterday when I visited was the road width. Looked at tad small to my eye. Does anyone have any info on this? Hearing Examiner recommendations #2 and #8 state that Sultan's road code and specifications will be followed. Item #8 says that York must construct road improvements on 124th Street. The current city code states a 60-foot minimum width.

One argument for Rick Cisar's appointment in the virtually-unheard-of role of City Administrator and City Planner was the extraordinary savings for the City's budget. In Vol. I, Issue 4 of the Valley Review, Mayor Rowe was quoted as saying, "'The two for one deal' saves the City tens of thousands of dollars."

About one month later, Mayor Rowe was trying to sell the council on a new "part-time" city engineer (who would perform many of Rick's previous duties as city planner) that would also "save" the city a bunch of $$$$ by having him work only 20-30 hours a week for $50 an hour. But when it was pointed out that this would end up costing the city somewhere in the vicinity of $52,000 and $65,000, the decision was then made by Rowe that, what the heck, they'd just make him a full-time employee (which no doubt will save the taxpayers even more....)

So what began as a two-fer job for one expensive employee to "save" money, has now morphed into two employees with high-end wages. The new "bargain" engineer, by the way -- while not yet hired but has already been hand-picked by Rowe -- is not conversant with road or traffic issues, one of our biggest problems. The upside, however, is that he is conversant with water and sewer issues, a subject that jumped from only worrisome to urgent after the Morris issue came front and center. Bottom line: Does anyone really believe this will save any money in consultants' fees? After all The Three Stooges' folderol and pointless posturing, the city will not have a two-for-one inexpensive employee, but yet another employee by which they can court more developer interests. But it does nothing to ensure, or either increase, the City's accountability, professionalism or efficiencies of scale.

During the August 5th PC workshop, Gary Bourne engaged the resident-participants in a detailed discussion of the capacity capability remaining on our sewer. We hope to do a transcription, time permitting. Unfortunately,. little was clarified since much of the information given was contradictory. Just to place this 720-home capacity figure into layman's terms, that means another 1,944 new people. Gary stated the current connected population being served is 3400. That means a total of 5344 people can use the plant at capacity. The sewer plant was designed to serve a population of 4819, so that's a difference of 525 folks.

A more important factor is the imminent increase in retail, commercial and industrial business, now that the LID 97 is finished. A smallish retail or small office commercial establishment uses about the same as a single person in one day -- 100 gallons (assuming, of course, it's not a beauty shop or similar!). At variance to that 100 gpm figure is one that Mr. Bourne and other consultants love to use, is the capacity used by large-scale service-oriented businesses such as service stations, car washes, restaurants or grocery stores, which use several hundred to thousands of gallons of water per day. (Some examples, based on Sultan's 1995 water capital facilities plan: Sultan School district uses 7,305; Dutch Cup Motel, 3,882; Romac Industries, 3,596; Dutch Cup Restaurant, 1,667; and the Hoot Owl Gas & Grocery at 1,087 gpd. Additionally, many industries use far greater volumes.

It was clear that Mr. Bourne did not consider these in running his estimates. Thus, it's necessary to adjust the 720-home figure correspondingly, assuming it is correct. If folks wish to learn more about how much a new or significantly enlarged sewer plant will cost taxpayers, perform a search of the Everett Herald's website to see what Duvall and Monroe are being faced with. Monroe, especially, has a problem, because they did not control their growth. They, as Sultan is doing still, simply allowed a developer's whim to prevail.

Has anyone ever seen a notice or announcement for the regularly-held council committee meetings? Like the Finance, Land Use, or others? Or for the Economic Development Committee meeting? Aren't these public meetings? Certainly, the council committee meetings are. A ton of business is done and alternatives discussed during these meetings that never gets reported to the taxpayers. Isn't it about time residents are kept informed of them?

Our three-year-plus lawsuit against Kenton Coy -- to retrieve ownership of our G.R.I.T. name, which also accused him of slander and libel -- has finally been settled.

I think it's important for Sultan residents to know now -- especially on the cusp of a mayoral election -- who aided and supported Mr. Coy in his fabrication and false claims, by offering perjured affidavits in this case. These individuals are: Mayor C. H. Rowe, City Councilman Robert Criswell, Philip Jordan, Edgar Hill and LeRoy Jensen. Additionally, C. H. Rowe, as then-Sultan mayor, approved the September 9, 2000 "special" 20-minute presentation during the council meeting wherein Mrssrs. Coy and Boucher (Edward) slandered my husband and myself. (The word-for-ward transcription is on our website, if anyone's interested in ancient history.)

Loretta Storm, co-Founder, G.R.I.T.

www.ittakesgrit.org

360-793-6683

From: "Kristin Kelly" <kristin@1000friends.org>

Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 14:40:31 -0700

Subject: [1000friends] County Council Decisions on 2003 Comprehensive Plan Update (Docket)

Dear Friends, Below are the results of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment Docket 2003 Snohomish County Council Public Hearing, August 13, 2003. These were the Preliminary Votes by County Council Members. Final Adoption of the amendments is scheduled for September 10, 2003.

For more questions, please contact 1000 Friends of Washington Snohomish County Field Organizer Kristin Kelly at 425-783-0130 or by email at Kristin@1000friends.org

Group One

Jerry Booker, 88 acres from Urban Industrial/Heavy Industrial to Urban Low Density Residential (3 homes/acre) in Darrington Urban Growth Area (UGA), adopted 5-0.

City of Everett, 17.6 acres UGA expansion of riverway commercial farmland/Agricultural-10 off Lowell River Road, adopted 5-0.

Frank Heath, 4.5 acre UGA expansion of Maltby and rezone from Rural Residential(1 home per 5 acres) to Urban Industrial/Heavy Industrial. Adopted 4-1, Gossett voting no.

NORETEP, 7.7 acre rezone in Arlington UGA from Urban Low Density Residential (4-6 homes per acre)/Agricultural-10 to Urban Industrial/Light Industrial. Adopted 5-0.

Gene McKinney, 9.8 rezone of the Maltby UGA from Urban Industrial/Rural Commercial to Industrial Park. Adopted with amendment that access will be from Broadway until the other access is established. Adopted 5-0.

Snohomish County Dept. of Public Works, 23.5 acres rezone in the Monroe UGA from Urban Industrial/Planned Industrial Park to Urban Commercial/General Commercial. Adopted 5-0

Dwayne Lane, 110.5 acre UGA expansion of Arlington and rezone from Rural Freeway Service and Riverway Commercial Farmland/Agricultural-10 to Urban Commercial/General Commerical. Adopted 4-1 with Gossett voting no.

Wellington Morris, 20 acre Monroe UGA expansion and rezone from Rural Residential (1 home per 5 acres) to Urban Low Density Residential (4-6 homes per acre). Council vote was 5-0 to remove it from docket consideration.

Allen Creek Baptist Church, 3.7 acre Marysville UGA expansion and rezone from Rural Residential/R-5 (1 home per 5 acres) to Public Institutional Use/Residential-9600 for a church in order to be able to acquire sewer service. Adopted 5-0.

Urban Centers, Proposed amendments to General Policy Plan (GPP) Goals LU4 and LU5 and to the Future Land Use map (FLUM) for an urban centers and for the establishment of an urban center specifically at 164th Street and I-5. Adopted 5-0

Jeff Cole, 6.5 acre rezone in the Clearview area as part of the Limited Areas of More Intensive Rural Development (LAMIRD) from Rural Residential/Rural-5 (1 home per 5 acres) to Clearview Rural Commercial. Adopted 3-2 with Gossett and Sievers voting no.

John Davis, 17 acres to be taken out of the Development Phasing Overlay in the Lake Stevens UGA area off of Highway 204 and Vernon Road to allow development of Urban Medium Density Residential (6-12 homes per acre). Adopted 4-1 with Gossett voting no.

Pacific Centers, 3.5 acre rezone on the Southwest corner of 132nd Street SE and Seattle Hill Road from Urban Low Density Residential (4-6 homes per acre) to Urban Commercial/Neighborhood Business. Adopted 3-2 with Gossett and Koster voting no.

County Council Koster A Rural Sewer Extensions for Churches and Schools, Allow sewer service outside a UGA for churches and schools located in rural areas outside of a UGA and adjacent to existing sewer lines. Adopted 4-1, with Gossett voting no.

County Council Koster B Rural Business Zoning, Allow for amendments to the Rural Business zoning to allow for new RB zone closer than one mile from a UGA boundary and allow the expansion of existing RB zoned sites to the 5 acre maximum if located less than 2-1/2 miles from an existing rural commercial/rural industrial zoned or designated site. Adopted 5-0.

Transfer of Development Rights Program, a Striker Amendment was introduced the day of the hearing from Councilmember John Koster. The council voted to keep written comment period open for this docket item until September 4. There will be a separate action alert on this item in the next week.

Dean Essex, 65 acre parcel, 27 acres for a UGA expansion of Granite Falls and 38 acres for Open Space Conservation Easement, changing zoning of the 27 acres from Rural Residential (1 homes per 5 acres) to Urban Low Density Residential/R-9600 (4-6 homes per acre) with a new policy establishing Open Space/Parks policy as a way to allow for UGA expansions. The UGA expansion and rezone would not take place for 18 months in which time the Conservation Easement would have to be recorded and the City of Granite Falls and the County and Dean Essex would enter into discussions about whether the City of Granite Falls would ever annex the developed area and if they can provide sewer service to the site. If after 18 months, neither the conservation easement has been filed and/or an agreement is reached with the City of Granite Falls, the property would go back to its original Rural Residential 5 zoning. Adopted 5-0.

Seattle-Snohomish Mill, 6.7 acre rezone from Agricultural-10 to Light Industrial in the Shoreline Density Fringe area on the Snohomish River. Adopted 5-0 and would be enacted after the FEMA studies and update to the Shoreline Master Plan Map are completed

Kristin Kelly

Field Organizer

Snohomish-Skagit Initiative

1000 Friends of Washington

3114 Oakes, C-4

Everett, WA 98201

(425) 783-0130

kristin@1000friends.org