The following was released late yesterday. Aside from the intervention is anyone else as puzzled as I am about why the Whatcom Land Trust holds conservation easements on 15 of our county park properties? More on that later but, for now:
Press Release: Jack Petree 360-733-1303
Subject: Whatcom Land Trust Intervention In Petree Challenge To Growth Management Hearings Board
Title: Whatcom Land Trust Positions Itself To Assure It Can Sue Whatcom County And/or The Growth Management Hearings Board In Superior Court Over Reconveyance
May 3rd, the Whatcom Land Trust moved to intervene in Jack Petree’s challenge of the Lake Whatcom Reconveyance before the Growth Management Hearings Board.
According to Petree, the County’s challenger, “The land trust did not address the issues before the Board in its motion to intervene but, instead, appears to be worried about two non-legal issues.
First, the Trust complains, the County, “…may choose to settle with Petitioner on terms that substantially affect WLT, even though it (the Land Trust) is not a party.”
Second, the Land Trust worries that, “The County has no independent interest or motivation to advance or protect the property interests of any individual or organization.”’
Petree says he has offered to settle his challenge if Whatcom County will agree to suspend its reconveyance request until it has docketed and attempted, in a transparent public process, to dedesignate the land proposed for reconveyance and redesignate those lands to a zone that allows public parks. Currently, he says, parks are excluded from the land proposed for reconveyance.
The County has rejected a transparent public process to change the zoning on the land, Petree says, but he is “…still hopeful the County Council will do the right thing and avoid the legal challenge now before the Board along with the expense and effort required by both Petree and the County when legal remedies are the only way to settle an issue.”
Second, Petree puts forward, it is interesting that the Land Trust is so worried about its own ability to control the Whatcom County Parks system. In its request the Land Trust points out that it already controls, through the mechanism of conservation easements, 15 county park properties. “Now the Land Trust seems to be worried it will lose the potential to control another 8,800 acres of land currently dedicated, by Washington State Law, to the preservation of Whatcom County’s timber industry,” Petree continues. “I always thought the public should control its own parks but, apparently, the Whatcom Land Trust disagrees.”
Petree said he will oppose the Land Trust’s request for intervention because the Land Trust did not speak to the issues of the Petition for Review in its intervention request but will be surprised if the Trust is not allowed to intervene. That could mean, Petree says, if he prevails at the Hearings Board the Land Trust could take the Hearings Board to Superior Court and possibly beyond in an attempt to overturn the decision. Alternatively, Petree contends, if the county chooses to settle the issue with Petree the Land Trust’s intervention appears to be a thinly veiled threat to sue to stop the transparent public process necessary to rezone the land to allow for a public park.
I thought you might like this from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_easement
In the United States, a conservation easement (also called a conservation basement, conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or government (municipal, county, state or federal) to constrain, as to a specified land area, the exercise of rights otherwise held by a landowner so as to achieve certain conservation purposes. It is an interest in real property established by agreement between a landowner and land trust or unit of government. The conservation easement "runs with the land," meaning it is applicable to both present and future owners of the land. As with other real property interests, the grant of conservation easement is recorded in the local land records; the grant becomes a part of the chain of title for the property.
I thought you might like this from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_easement
In the United States, a conservation easement (also called a conservation basement, conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or government (municipal, county, state or federal) to constrain, as to a specified land area, the exercise of rights otherwise held by a landowner so as to achieve certain conservation purposes. It is an interest in real property established by agreement between a landowner and land trust or unit of government. The conservation easement "runs with the land," meaning it is applicable to both present and future owners of the land. As with other real property interests, the grant of conservation easement is recorded in the local land records; the grant becomes a part of the chain of title for the property.
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