Healthy habitat for salmon and wildlife. Yet the need to accommodate more housing is pressing and important. As a consequence of the poor growth management plans of the past, many areas with these precious resources were lost beneath sprawling roads and development. Some say the answer is to add to the increasing heavy load of regulations developers must face. While most regulations are necessary, too many can be stifling and inflexible and add unnecessarily to housing costs.
Rules also are always subject to change, sometimes in the wrong direction.
Others advocate buying-up lands to preserve them, but the supply of available dollars is shrinking. Notwithstanding the heroic efforts of King County citizens to preserve farms and open space over the last 20 years with public bonds, the costs of acquisition of all the lands proposed for preservation would be staggering. We think a better answer is to be creative we need to find and use new tools for managing growth. Permanently preserve rural forests and farms, salmon habitat, open space, and greenbelts with virtually no impact to taxpayers. Provide a voluntary option for landowners to realize the financial benefits of their land without developing it.