Methow Valley Citizens’ Council

The Year in Review

The year 2011 was a heady year. Citizens throughout the county spent many hours trying to cope with a deluge of county meetings and constant hearings to revise the Comprehensive Plan.

Many of you attended these meetings. Those who value open space and a healthy agricultural economy reminded commissioners to avoid sprawl and uncontrolled development. You told commissioners that you favor sound planning and protection of the fragile, limited resources we all share.

The citizens of the Methow Valley support sound planning because it is important to all of us - and to future generations - to preserve clean air and water, and a healthy environment.

Commissioners were urged to keep the planning protections that have protected the Methow for 35 years. These protections were written by Methow citizens and adopted by the County Commissioners, and they have kept our rural landscape intact and our property values high.

While Commissioners were hearing from concerned constituents across the county, opponents of the existing Methow Plans were circulating misinformation about the Upper Methow and Methow Valley addendums. But once they saw how these plans helped guide responsible development in the Methow for 35 years, we began to build a base of common ground.

For more information, you can read our main comments:

Comments by the Methow Valley Citizens' Council, April 25, 2011.

Main points emphasized in comments:

The Methow plans were adopted by the commissioners and must be preserved as part of an updated Comprehensive Plan.

Okanogan County does not currently plan under the state's Growth Management Act, but it is uncontrolled growth that will put the county on a faster path to the GMA, not simply using words in Okanogan County's Plan that are also used in the GMA. When a county hits a population of 50,000 or grows by more than 20 percent in 10 years, it must plan under the GMA. Those who lobby for high-density development - such as houses on one-acre lots - are only speeding up the process.

Keep the Methow addendums in the Comprehensive Plan in order that they can be updated along with the rest of the plan to be sure they address current planning needs and goals. Preserving the Upper Methow and Methow Valley addendums provide policy and zoning direction from Mazama to Gold Creek.

Support extension of Methow Review District (MRD) to Black Canyon in the Lower Methow.

Support the designation of sub-area plans countywide. Our county is diverse in culture and in landscape. The draft does generically state the need to create separate zoning rules that respond to unique conditions in various areas of the county (and designates the MRD as a sub-area.) However, it does not give enough direction regarding the possibilities of creating sub-areas in other parts of the county, including the Lower Methow.

Local decision-making is important to all of us - that's why we are fighting so hard for sub-area plans. The county currently does not plan under the Growth Management Act. By retaining the Methow plans in the Comprehensive Plan Appendix we can still have local control while avoiding higher density and sprawl could bring us under the GMA by increasing the county's population.

The county is required to designate agricultural resource lands that include private farmland, not just public lands. The majority of crops are grown on private, irrigated land, and the county's agricultural economy could not survive without it. Even ranchers who graze cattle on public lands in the summer need a place to grow hay for the rest of the year.

Many other issues were brought to the Commissioners including farmland protection, dark skies, restrictions on ridge-top development, and protecting water quality and quantity for people and wildlife.

MORE INFORMATION ON EXTENDING THE METHOW REVIEW DISTRICT (MRD) TO BLACK CANYON:

The Methow Review District was extended to Black Canyon by the Okanogan County planning commission after months of study, testimony, and the recommendation of the county's Lower Valley Advisory Committee. This status (already a compromise from a larger extension) was removed unexpectedly by the planning commissioners, based on faulty information and without clear explanation. The planning commission's original decision should never have faltered.

The Methow Review District has worked well in the upper valley since 1979, when it was enacted to address the threat of development pressure in the upper Methow. Although MRD zoning was originally opposed by some individuals who desired to subdivide into small lots, it has proven to work well over decades as a positive tool to address development pressure. Now the Lower Methow is under pressure from numerous hastily prepared developments. Acting ahead of development makes sense and is the way to address our future in this beautiful valley.

The Lower Methow contains the most productive agricultural lands in the Methow Valley, and almost all of these currently productive farmlands can still be subdivided down to one acre under current zoning and in this draft comp plan. Extension of the MRD, with five- and 20-acre minimums, would go a long way toward relieving this dilemma. See the comp plan map at http://www.okanogancounty.org/Commissioners/ to view parcels recommended for one-acre minimum lot sizes under this draft.

The Methow Valley is one watershed; what affects one part of the valley affects the rest. For example, dense development and the accompanying increase in automobile traffic affect migratory wildlife and increase driving hazards. There is no room to widen or re-route the highway in the narrow Lower Valley. Air pollution travels up valley during part of the day, and water quality and quantity are interrelated throughout the watershed. The boundaries chosen for the MRD should not be dictated by special interests outside the valley but should be based on the natural constraints of the valley. Methow Valley property now valued for its open space, clean water and air, and wildlife will lose these values with high-density zoning, destroying the very reasons people chose to live here. Assessed values for property tax, on the other hand, would increase because these properties could be subdivided, creating more tax burden on these landowners.

For more information:

Click here for a detailed summary of issues

Map and Draft Comprehensive plan: http://www.okanogancounty.org/Commissioners/

Current Methow Review District plans: http://www.okanogancounty.org/planning/