Why There Must Be A Reconveyance Challenge

People ask why a challenge to the Reconveyance is so important.  Interestingly, some of those people are the same persons who fight hard to preserve Ag land and the county’s agricultural heritage.

Pretending slides and other natural events will stop if we just have Reconveyance is disingenuous

Sometimes the question is asked because the person asking is unaware that the land the county has requested for reconveyance is zoned Commercial Forest (CF), a designation that, by law, confers the same protection on the land that designation as an AG zone does.  Under the Growth Management Act and by adoption of the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan and its accompanying development regulations, lands zoned CF are dedicated to the maintenance and enhancement of the County’s timber industry.  Parks are, by law, forbidden in the zone.  Many Hearings Board decisions and a couple of Supreme Court decisions have upheld that contention.

If the Executive and the County Council had done what they are required to do some years ago, there would be no challenge.  To change a zoning designation the County is supposed to docket (schedule) a transparent public discussion of the change, allow the Planning Commission to examine the facts about the rezone, take testimony then make a recommendation regarding the change to the County Council.  If the Council votes to rezone the land, actions like the reconveyance can be initiated.  Parks and Commercial Timber production are not compatible.  The land cannot be dedicated to both at once.

County Council member Pete Kremen has belittled the impact of removing 8,800 acres of land from the forest resource base.  It should be remembered that several other reconveyance actions have already reduced the timberlands of the county and more are planned.  In addition, consider the following quote from a DNR analysis about the future of the forest in Washington presented to the Washington Legislature in 2007 (pre-recession):

“Timber harvest has dramatically declined in the past 15 years on all ownership categories, from 5.9 billion board feet per year to 3.6 billion board feet per year, a 40 percent aggregate decline. The greatest declines have been on national forests as a result of federal policy. Unanticipated harvest declines have also occurred on state trust lands, on western Washington tribal lands, on industrial forest lands, and on western Washington non-industrial private lands, largely in response to changing regulations and market conditions and to land conversions.”

A Petition For Review or challenge to a County action is not a lawsuit.  It is just what it says it is, a petition for review.  If the Hearings Board finds the County erred then the Reconveyance Resolution will be sent back to the County for a proper process.

If we are going to deliberately destroy an industry shouldn’t we at least acknowledge we are doing just that?  The appropriateness of such an action is what a proper and transparent process to redesignate the land to a zoning designation allowing parks on the land would explore. 

All that is one reason a challenge is important.