Steep slopes tour informs

Published 12:03 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Dennis Box

The Courier-Herald

Bonney Lake's recent steep slope tour may not have been Disneyland vacation stuff, but it did manage to visually inform the council members in attendance.

A group of council members, the mayor and city staff toured the city's steep slope areas that are under rezoning consideration by the council

The tour took place Thursday and was attended by council members Cheryle Noble, Mark Hamilton, Dave King, Jim Rackley and Phil DeLeo. Mayor Bob Young and city staff members from the Planning Department also attended.

The tour followed a series of sheer slopes along state Route 410 stretching southward below Sky Island. These are properties surrounding Bonney Lake where owners are intending to build single-family homes and multi-family dwellings.

During the Aug. 23 council meeting, numerous property owners spoke against the Planning Commission's and staff's recommendation the properties be rezoned to RC-5, which allows one residence per 5-acre lot.

The properties are zoned either R-1, which is four homes per acre, or commercial.

"I thought it was a very valuable tour," King said. "But I am especially interested in keeping areas around (SR) 410 as a visual barrier. I don't intend to disadvantage any single owner, but I do intend to maintain the visual charter of our city approaching from the west."

Rackley has disagreed with the proposed rezone from the time the commission sent its recommendation to the council.

"I'm still against, but I thought it was a good tour," Rackley said. "Even if we change the zoning to RC-5, people could still log all those trees anyway. Every single one of those property owners has some money invested in development. It's too late for the City Council to do what they are trying to do. All we would be doing is messing with people's lives."

After a discussion at the Aug. 23 meeting, members decided to table the ordinance for further discussion and, upon DeLeo's suggestion, the tour of the properties was arranged.

"I wanted to go through the tour with an open mind," Hamilton said. "But it didn't change my thinking. These are critical areas that need to be preserved. RC-5 may not be the best zoning, but it's the best zoning we have. I think it could go back to planning and they could give the owners more value by increasing the number of homes allowed, but I can't support a carte blanche (R-1) four house per acre. I look at the aesthetics of the approach to the city."

According to Young, the properties in question were annexed into the city with zoning agreements.

"The properties were brought into the city with promises for commercial or R-1 zoning," Young said. "It's wrong to downzone them now."

Hamilton acknowledged some of the owners would be in a difficult position if their property's zoning were changed.

"I understand what they are saying and their stories of their dreams vanishing really tug at our heart strings," Hamilton said. "But I also have to take some consideration of the dreams of the people in the city. I think we need to come up with a different type of zoning."

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.