TLNRG 2008 Rummage Sale

Three Lakes Neighbors for Responsible Growth will be having a rummage sale on Saturday, June 28 in the parking lot of Frontier Bank, 818 Ave. D in Snohomish from 9 am to 3:30 pm. This will include Furniture, plants and all sorts of stuff from more than ten families who live in the Three Lakes community about 5 miles NE of Snohomish.

For further information visit the TLNRG Website at www.3lakeswa.org or the Three Lakes Blog at www.3lakeswa.org/blog/

Fire damages houses in the Street of Dreams . . .

Our county has made it into the national news today because someone took extreme measures to attempt to deal with some of the issues that have frustrated the residents of our rural neighborhood. I'm not condoning their methods--but I certainly think these issues need to have a wider exposure in the media and on the internet. If you want more information on the actual news, you can check it out here or here in the mainstream media.

The following are comments that I've posted in the comments section on Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and the Dateline Earth blogs:

As someone who has been involved in fighting off one of the RCD's (Rural Cluster Subdivision) a bit further north in Snohomish county, I'm very familiar with the frustrations that the people who already live in a rural area suffer when the developers move in and take over a neighborhood. The RCD law allows them to cram a bunch of houses on small lots (cluster) into a neighborhood that has been zoned for more dispersed populations. The theory is that this will allow preservation of the rural character by dedicating some of the land to be eternally undeveloped.  But it still introduces a whole bunch of traffic and additional people into a rural neighborhood, without really taking care of the environmental impacts. And if the neighbors disagree with the development, the law is supposed to set standards that will mediate the issues and assure that things meet standards.
There are two major problems with all this: the developers have money or resources to fight back against the neighbors who don't have the money, and the County government misinterprets the law (in favor of the developers); thus forcing the neighbors to move into the court system (at great expense) to have the law enforced. In our case the final decision that we could afford was made by the County Council, politically based, and in spite of fighting politically in previous elections, we were at the mercy of the developers. It's now more fairly balanced (after two elections) but we still lose.
An irony is that some of the people who now live in our neighborhood (on a ten acre lot) moved here to escape the development down by Woodinville, and when they got here found the developers ahead of them.
Another irony is that the developers in our neighborhood apparently can't find customers because of the housing downturn, so even though they have an approved development permit they haven't started yet. So we have a reprieve.  Maybe we'll have our lawyer bills paid off before they start.

In spite of our frustrations, I doubt that anyone in our neighborhood would go to the extreme or burning down a development, or even part of it.

Three Lakes History

I spend some time the other day talking with Wayne Burchfield, who is the Manager of the Three Lakes Water Company, from whom almost all of use get our water. Wayne has lived in Three Lakes since 1962, and knows a lot of the old history of the area. When he first moved here, he talked to many of the old timers in the area, and he had a lot of interesting stories to tell.

It's occurred to me that we ought to be capturing a lot of those stories, not only from him but from the remaining old times who are still living here. I've always had an interest in local history wherever I've lived, and an oral history project is the best way to get the information. I captured a lot of stories from one of my mothers friends who had grown up in pioneer Montana. My first wife was a History professor, and has written books on the history of Ballard and Tukwila. I'm not necessarily suggesting a book here, but knowing more about the local history could enhance the quality of the websites that some of us have about the area.

It may take awhile to get an organized oral history project going, but in the meantime if you have information on local Three Lakes history, or some good stories from your youth, or any other information that might be of interest to others, I would encourage you to put it into a comment on this blog. If you have something particularly good, I'll even run it as a full blog post (with your permission).

More Shooting

It's the Labor Day weekend, and our neighbors are trying out a new automatic or semi-automatic weapon. I certainly hope they are shooting into the hillside, and will get over their fixation with loud noises.
I've determined that they are apparently shooting just outside the Panther Lake no shooting zone, which extends to 500 yards from the lakeshore. They are still well within the population area of the old Three Lakes town as it has grown more densely populated in recent years. Most of the people living further from the lake are in the five acre lots that the area is zoned for. Those who live between Panther Lake Road and the Lake are in lots that were part of the old town of Three Lakes and tend to be less than one acre, although many of them are combined to make larger estates.
It may be time to extend the no-shooting area to the west. Particularly after the Panther Lake Ridge development goes in--there will be an additional 30 families living in the area, but outside the no shooting zone. It would make sense to extend it to at least 1000 yards from the Lake (from the 500 yards it is currently).
There are two issues involved here. One is the noise, but we can probably live with that if it is intermittant. The other, and more important, is the safety issue. Presumably people who own guns have had safety training and know how to shoot without hitting someone or damaging property, but that is not guaranteed.
When I was a kid growing up in Montana we went to a shooting range to sight in our guns and do target practice. When I was in the Boy Scouts we used the facilities at the ROTC department at MSU. And when we went hunting we were generally well away from people--Montana had a population of about 2 people per square mile back in those days, and most people lived in towns, so if you were in a rural area where there were deer, there weren't likely to be any other people around except other hunters. I found that out the hard way one time when I got my car stuck while solo hunting in the Bridgers, and had to walk several miles back to a main road to snag a ride back to town. Or another time when I shot a deer about 3 miles from the nearest road. . .

Shooting vs No Shooting

For several days we have been intermittently hearing gunshots fired; probably as target practice but possibly for shooting "varmints". Since we live well inside the Panther Lake No-shooting zone, we began to wonder what was going on. A call to 911 eventually, (after several returned calls, denials that there is a no shooting zone, and seeming dereliction of duty by the sheriff's department), evoked the news that if we want to file a complaint, we have to be able to identify the culprits. Not a simple task given the limitations on the size of the no-shooting zone, the distance sound carries, the thick forest in some regions, and not least the fact that people who are shooting have guns, and by the rules of the city where I've lived most of my adult life, are "potentially dangerous" and are presumed to be dealt with by the proper authorities.



Personally I don't have a problem with people shooting, as long as they aren't shooting at me or other human beings or human associated livestock. I grew up in Montana shooting gophers, hunting birds and big game; fishing, and learned to shoot at squirrels with a handgun (not sure I ever hit one, though). My rifle team won the Regional Boy Scout Target Shooting Championship one year. When I moved to the big city over 40 years ago I gave my rifles and shotgun to my sister and never got back into hunting--there were too many other things to do.



The principle here is we live in a relatively high population density area where shooting could be dangerous to the inhabitants. But we aren't an incorporated city, where shooting is apparently not allowed by local ordinance. So Snohomish County has enacted an Ordinance declaring certain areas as No Shooting Areas. These can be adjusted by Petition of the residents.



The Panther Lake No Shooting zone extends to within 500 yards of the lake shore, a strip along the road towards the lake that extends south from Dubuque Road, and the area between 163rd Ave. and 171st Ave. extending to the south of the Lake to about 1/2 mile south of Three Lakes Road.



I've spent some time with my GPS device figuring out where the boundary is on the ground, I have now decided that the gunshots may have come from outside the no shooting zone. Based on the angle the shots sound from, they would have to be up the hill to the southwest. There are several houses in that area, outside the Zone, and 51st Street allows ready access outside the zone.



However, the point I am making is that the Sheriff's department should have responded a little more sympathetically to our complaint. We pay our taxes so they can get their salary to do their job, and part of that job is to enforce the ordinance. If the ordinance wasn't broken, then no one would be charged. Should we have to search after the potential lawbreakers? Form a posse?

Back Again?

After a long delay due to problems with the conversion of blogger from blogger1 to blogger2, I think I am back and able to post again. Now the only problem will be finding the time to post, since we have started a new aromatherapy blog. If this all works well I will be back with a real post.

Reconsideration Hearing for Panther Lake Ridge

We had the hearing on reconsideration of the Previous Hearing Examiners findings on a remand from the County Council of our battle to make sure that the Panther Lake Ridge developers follow the law and put their development in right.

I've generally refrained from blogging about these hearings in the past, on the theory that as a participant in the hearings I would be a biased observer, but I would like to present an overview of the hearing and the situation. And the fact is that this blog is a biased observer of everything.

We have been fighting this battle for almost three years.  The original application for a 32 lot Rural Cluster subdivision was filed in 2004. We (Three Lakes Neighbors for Responsible Growth - TLNRG) organized ourselves, hired a lawyer, and contested the application.  Over the years we have forced the developers to make a lot of changes in their plans to more closely meet the legal requirements, gotten to know our neighbors pretty well, raised a lot of money from ourselves and others to help pay our legal bills, and poured a lot of coffee at Interstate Rest Areas.

I feel like I have spent more time at the County administrative building than any other place except home and work over the last three years.

Today's hearing was over reconsideration of a narrow issue. The county code requires that the lots in a Rural Cluster subdivision be mostly invisible to the outside world. If there is other buildable land available, lots must be built on that land first and not on a highly visible feature such as a ridge.  In this case, the developer wants to build the lots on a ridge, at says that their is no other buildable land available.  We say that there is buildable land available, and many of their lots should be built on that land and not on the ridge.

The issue really boils down to the definition of a ridge and whether some of the buildable land off the main ridge is also located on "ridges".  The question is:  what is a ridge? and if these areas are "ridges" can you build on them. This gets down to the question of what topographical elevation is required to make a ridge and a ridgeline. The main ridge has a fairly steep topographical elevation difference of almost 100 feet, while the lower "ridges" are flatter and have a topographical elevation difference of only 20 feet spread out over a wide area (for all practical purposes almost flat).

We have made our arguments; the developers have made theirs, and the matter is in the hands of the Deputy Hearing Examiner.  We should know his decision within two weeks. I'll let you know.

Further hearing ordered on Reconsideration for PLR

I guess I've gotten behind on posting news about the Three Lakes Neighbors continuing fight against the Rural Cluster Subdivision proposed for "Panther Lake Ridge".  After Mr. Backstein issued his opinion in October approving the development, we filed for Reconsideration.  Since Mr. Backstein had conveniently retired immediately after issuing his decision, the Deputy Hearing Examiner, Mr. Ed Good, had to do the reconsideration.  Since he was apparently unfamiliar with the case, he has ordered another hearing.

In an order issued December 6, he ordered another Hearing on Friday, February 2, 2007.

You'll be hearing more about this after the holidays.  If you aren't familiar with the case, we've posted a lot of documents, information, and links elsewhere on the www.3lakeswa.org site.

Snohomish Responds

The city of Snohomish and the Snohomish School District have responded to the accusations of the Seattle PI article mentioned in the previous post by preparing an OP-Ed to be submitted to the PI, (which has been posted on their web site [PDF], and e-mailed to their distribution list.) It's also posted on the City of Snohomish web site here.

In other news, a petition has been put up and linked to Digg and other sites. As of this writing it has 5689 signatures (I just signed it), most bashing the citizens of Snohomish, with a few actively supporting the injured student, but most comments of dubious character.

This story has grown throughout the MSM and the Blogosphere.  I found a lik to the Wall Street Journal and a Blog in Ontario has given it good coverage or both sides of the issue (actually they are more sympathetic to us poor Snohomians).

It remains to be seen whether the PI will publish the OpEd.

Stay tuned.

Trashing the town of Snohomish

The city/town of Snohomish is in the news again, and not in a positive way. This morning the Seattle PI published an article about the aftermath of the Snohomish High School cannon explosion in October. The article poked into the underbelly of small town life, emphasizing the small-town response of some Snohomians to their fears of losing the Cannon-firing tradition at the annual Homecoming football game by attacking a victim--the student who was seriously injured when a Cannon blew up when fired at this year's game.

The article that pointed out how cruel some people can be garnered 167 comments on the PI site--mostly being upset with the entire town of Snohomish, not just the few (maybe even many) idiots who tried to threaten and intimidate the injured student to lie low so they would be able to keep their Cannon.

Perhaps that wouldn't have been so bad in itself but the article went out on the UPI wire and got picked up by Internet sites such as Fark.com and Digg.com. The Digg site has 423 comments and almost 3,000 Diggs. A Google Blog Search as of this writing has 87 Blog References, with probably more coming. (And no, I haven't read them all in researching this post.)

A common theme running through the comments is that Snohomians are bad people and I will never visit your town again (or ever)! There is universal condemnation of the cruel idiots. . . but the commenters seem to forget that it is only the actions of a few that they need to condemn. But they are tarring the rest of us, innocents all with the same brush.

The fact is that we have a small business in Snohomish, and I'd really like to see people continue to visit the community, and patronize our business and the other businesses there.

I have a large amount of empathy for the injured student and his family who are getting the threats (I've been there) and those who are are making them should be strongly condemned, and perhaps even subjected to the same treatment they were threatening to dish out to the injured student.

 But it appears that the people of Snohomish don't recognize the calibre of the disaster that has befallen them. The commenters at the Digg site (the 78th most popular site on the Internet per Alexa) have turned into tormenters, posting the email addresses of the entire staff of the High School (who are unlikely to have been the people making the threats), freeping a poll on the school football team website, and sending emails to everyone they can think of who might be associated with this thing.

The com/tormenters have turned the very thing they abhor (small-town peer pressure) against the entire town and not just the peers.

A cloud of Internet Activity now hangs over Snohomish.

It's probably hard to tell exactly who has read this stuff and now associates Snohomish with a bad place, but it's potentially millions of internet readers. Definitely not what Snohomish needs.

I guess we will have to fall back on the old adage:

I don't care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right. --- George Cohan