Friday, January 16, 2004
By Brian Mittge, bmittge@chronline.com, The Chronicle
Lewis County's zoning rules for agricultural land faced a skeptical audience Thursday during hearings that could affect whether the planned Cardinal Glass plant can be built near Evaline.
A three-person state panel will also decide whether the county's 54,000 acres zoned as agricultural resource land adequately protects enough prime soil.
A group of citizen activists claim the county should be protecting twice as much ground, including farmland between Winlock and Napavine being eyed for industrial development, but currently zoned agricultural.
The first of two day-long hearings in Chehalis was punctuated by hard questions from the members of the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board — nearly all aimed at Lewis County government.
Underlying the legal bantering was a debate over the decline of local agriculture and conflict between the ability of current farmers to make a living on their land while ensuring future farmers can afford to buy land.
Mike McCormick, an Olympia consultant for Lewis County who helped write the state's original 1990 Growth Management Act, said agriculture in Lewis County is fading.
"The dairy industry is leaving Western Washington. It's going to Eastern Washington. That's not happening because of Lewis County," McCormick said.
Local canneries aren't issuing many contracts for corn and peas, he said.
Farmers, battling the forces of economics, are asking for as little additional regulation as possible, he said.
Gene Butler, a retired county attorney now helping lead a citizen fight against county rules, said the county would allow prime soils to be paved over or split off into residential subdivisions.
Another citizen activist, Karen Knutsen of Onalaska, said agricultural needs are always changing. Organic farmers, for instance, won't be able to get into the business if farmland prices jump to residential rates.
The county isn't protecting enough blocks of agricultural lands, she argued, allowing neighbors to move in and begin objecting to the noise, smell and chemicals of farming.
"The county claims it is enhancing and supporting the industry," Butler said of farming. "We submit that it is doing just the opposite." The ornate wood and pastel hearing room in the county courthouse played host to the quasi-judicial hearing, the latest in a multi-year struggle between state planning requirements and Lewis County's historic tilt toward private property rights.
Lewis County's original 1996 agricultural zoning has to be updated, according to previous rulings by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board.
Last fall, Lewis County finished a year-long process doing just that. Butler, Knutsen and other members of the so-called "petitioners" group appealed, as they have on previous county zoning decisions. Using a 1997 agricultural census, the petitioners pointed to 117,000 acres that are being farmed.
Lewis County narrowed that down to just a few thousand acres being actively cultivated, and doubled that for future need, eventually deciding that protecting 44,000 acres would be plenty for future commercial agricultural needs. They later decided to protect even more, about 54,000, but much of that is flood plain that couldn't be developed anyway.
The county decided not to protect some land that has historically been farmed, but isn't needed for the future of commercial agriculture, representatives said.
Hay pasture, said Lewis County's GMA attorney Alexander "Sandy" Mackie, is not commercial farmland, although it can qualify for an agricultural property tax break.
"You can rarely pay taxes with your harvested hay. We do not consider that long-term commercial activity," Mackie said.
Hearings Board member Nan Henriksen shot back that she found it "disingenuous" for landowners to apply for a farming property tax reduction while trying to avoid the restrictions that would come with agricultural land zoning.
Regardless of the county's agricultural zoning, backyard farmers don't need to worry about whether they can farm their own land.
People can still raise crops, livestock and gardens on their properties throughout Lewis County. The agricultural zoning is only to protect special lands with prime soils and long-term commercial significance.
The county also used the availability of increasingly scarce water rights to narrow down which areas are suitable for "Class A" agricultural land designation. Many floodplains, with their rich soils, were then designated Class B ag lands.
Chicken farmers and others who don't need good soil can "opt in" to the agricultural protections elsewhere in the county, Mackie said.
Henriksen, however, worried about whether that would create conflicts between residents and their new farming neighbors. She also worried about the county's requirement for irrigation on "Class A" ag lands, since water rights can expire if they're not used in five years.
"This is such a different approach than anything I've seen before, I'm having trouble getting my arms around it," Henriksen said.
She later commented that the county's method is different than anything the board has seen in other parts of Western Washington or in decisions by the state's other two GMA hearings boards.
"I'm wondering, is this something a board can suddenly say 'Hallelujah, all three boards are wrong, the Supreme Court is wrong, we think Lewis County's interpretation is the way to go?'" Henriksen said.
The county's decision would take several hundred acres of designated agricultural land near Evaline out of special protection. The change is necessary before a proposed industrial park and plate glass plant can be built near Highway 603 and Avery Road.
Some of that land is currently being cultivated for wheat. Other parts are pasture.
The county argued that the land is already fragmented with residential properties, and is close to Interstate 5.
"This is land clearly suitable for a higher and best use than agriculture," Mackie said.
Richard Roth of Winlock objected to that plan, saying open space is a necessary component of development.
"We're one of the last places in the I-5 corridor that are still rich with prime soils and forest lands. In coming years we'll realize these lands will give us an advantage over other counties, but only if we preserve that land," said Roth.
Brian Mittge covers politics, the environment and Lewis County government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at bmittge@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8237.
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