Skykomish Makes "Most endangered rivers" list

The Skykomish River in Snohomish County has been listed as one of the Nation's 10 most endangered rivers by American Rivers, a national environmental group, according to an article in the Everett Herald. Ironically, the river is in fairly good shape right now, but is considered to be threatened because of the threat of growth in rural areas of the county.

"Washington D.C.-based American Rivers believes the river is healthy, but is in danger of being overrun by growth if Snohomish County doesn't act to save it from development in the wrong places."

Although the Three Lakes area is not in the Skykomish watershed, many of the same problems that are envisioned for that area are already present in Three Lakes. Of particular concern to members of Three Lakes Neighbors for responsible Growth is the potential for rural cluster subdivisions, which were originally envisioned to help control growth, but in fact allow urban style congestion to happen in areas that are zoned for 5 acre lots. Under current county regulations, it is acceptable and even encouraged to cram as many as 32 houses into an area that would normally hold only 21 houses, if you build them on urban style 1 acre lots.

Perhaps even that wouldn't be so bad if the county followed its rules, but there is a history of the County Council bending the rules when pressured by the Developers.

Note: I have a vested interest in this issue since I am fighting to force the county to enforce its own rules in the case of the proposed Panther Lake Ridge subdivision, which is currently in an extended Hearing process. More about that in a future post.