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By Paula Collucci
Business to Business
“Lewis County is now open for business,” Bob Johnson, Lewis County’s director of community development, said of the lifting of the county’s self-imposed land use moratorium. County Commissioners unanimously voted to rescind the ordinance Monday, Jan. 25.
“This is long overdue,” County Commissioner Ron Averill said after the commissioners voted.
After the state Growth Management Board (GMB) found Lewis County non-compliant under the Growth Management Act (GMA), it placed an invalidity order on the county. Commissioners placed a moratorium upon more than 150,000 acres of Lewis County land to prevent further non-compliance with the GMA.
“Lewis County was required to come under growth management in 1993,” Averill explained.
And what followed was more than a decade of attempts to balance obligations to the residents of Lewis County with becoming compliant with the GMA.
The GMB announced that Lewis County was in compliance and lifted its invalidity order Dec. 29, 2009, after the county submitted its final growth management plan.
“Lewis County has spent … millions of dollars in order to get out of invalidity,” County Commissioner Lee Grose said. “To be able to say we are in compliance … that is an achievement.”
Various groups, private and business, have challenged the county’s various plans (that addressed everything from parcel size, soil types, to water rights) even at the Supreme Court level.
“It has been under appeal of one kind or another for years,” Johnson said.
But most of the disagreement fell under the designation of agricultural lands.
Johnson was first introduced to the Lewis County’s dilemma while he worked as a planner for the state Department of Commerce.
“I went to work for Lewis County shortly after,” he said. “For the first five years, we didn’t have any positive Growth Board decisions.”
Eventually, the county “threw everything out and started all over again,” Johnson said. The team then took on the task of reviewing every single parcel of Lewis County’s 1.5 million acres.
The county held a number of public hearings and formed citizen advisory boards.
“We’ve finally established 93,000 acres of agricultural lands,” Johnson said.
The county considered everything from whether the land was drained or irrigated to redefining what is considered agricultural. Timber holdings, Christmas tree operations, horticultural farms, fish farms and even “non-soil dependant poultry operations” were examined.
“The first step was to get the methodology,” Johnson explained. “The next was to apply it.”
While business developers now look at Lewis County for future industry, some residents are quite upset over the new zoning laws.
A resident at the public hearing on Jan. 25 told commissioners that before the moratorium was imposed, she and her husband began developing their property and subdivided it. She has been waiting for years to proceed, but now faces more paperwork and filing.
She and many other residents had hoped to subdivide their properties. Those properties designated as agricultural land will face problems.
Other residents spoke to commissioners about concerns regarding tax base changes and being automatically rezoned.
“Those originally under moratorium, that aren’t ag, are now under original classification,” Phillip Brook of Lewis County community development said.
Rhonda Nowak, owner of Jammers Family Restaurant in Chehalis, expressed concern Jan. 25 about her business’ classification. She wants the land to be classified to fit her property’s use: an interstate business.
Commissioners and community development told the public that the county is given one filing period a year for reclassifications.
“Unfortunately, we are restricted by that law and we have to comply with it,” Averill said.
Susie Kyle told commissioners that she hopes they will remember that Lewis County can encourage economic growth by supporting its farmers.
“We have a chance to revitalize Lewis County,” she said. “I am not against development. I am against development that impacts ag land.”
Kyle is a Winlock organic farmer, owner of Local Flavors Café in Chehalis, organizer with Yard Birds for its indoor market, and frequent visitor to Olympia. She wants to see “locally-grown organic food on the shelves” of Lewis County markets.
Averill said he understood the peoples’ frustrations.
“Inevitably, when you talk about zoning … there are winners and losers,” Averill said.
The winner, Dick Larman, director of Lewis County Economic Development, said is economic development.
“What this does is give a new level of certainty to the development community,” Larman said. “We haven’t been here for eight years. There’s work to do on how we all work together on this new process (of land use applications). But it sends positive signals to the development community.”
Larman said the more detailing of the new process, the better.
“The more things we can clearly define, the easier it is to attract projects,” he explained.
And, some way or another, the county has lost businesses to the moratorium in the past.
“This has definitely impacted development,” Averill said.
He noted that there have been three projects that he is aware of in the Napavine area that had to be turned down because of the moratorium.
“Now that we are out of invalidity, we can process those kinds of things,” he said.
Jim Valley, director of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce, was cautious about making any predictions.
“While it remains to be seen what benefit will come from the lifting of the invalidity order, the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce is always supportive of any action that reduces the restrictions on growing a business here in Lewis County,” he said.
For Johnson, the timing is with the utmost irony.
“We’re open for business,” he said. “Now if only the economy would be better.”
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