Three members of the Snohomish County Council took a very difficult stand this week and tried to institute a moratorium on Fully Contained Communities, Brian Sullivan, Dave Somers and Mike Cooper.
Thank you, gentlemen, for attempting to step back and re-examine whether or not this development option is reasonable or not. Meanwhile, no thank you to John Koster, who unwisely voted against the proposed moratorium. This measure would have given a little breathing room to communities currently threatened with a Fully Contained Community, such as the Lake Roesiger area west of Snohomish and the Seven Lakes just west of Marysville.
Developers are rapidly moving forward with their proposals for these developments, putting us at risk of losing thousands of acres of land to development of the most obscene kind, 6,000 homes, 15,000 people and 60,000 car trips per day on rural roads; the decimation of sensitive environmental areas; and the loss of peace that folks in rural-zoned land thought they could count on.
Mr. Koster represents North Snohomish County and chose to not ally himself with the interest of his electorate, who specifically asked him to support this measure. Clearly, big money is behind this development concept. And yet, to the common man with common sense and pockets not lined so thickly, the idea of building a new city by tearing up rural land, while our existing cities have demonstrated room for growth, is an idea that, plainly, stinks. So does Mr. Kosters vote.
Ellen Hiatt Watson
Stanwood