The so-called Forest Production District is carved into about 5,000 parcels. Building permits for about 10 percent of those homes have been issued since 1995. The creeping development continues despite previous efforts to stem it. The county's latest attempt to downzone the rural and forest lands is its third such attempt to slow growth in the past 16 years. Zoning in rural and forest areas is no small matter in King County.
Timber companies own one-third of the Forest Production District.
County Executive Ron Sims plans to present a list of proposed changes to the Metropolitan King County Council on March 1. Some rural-zoned lands on Vashon Island and east of the county's primary growth boundary line, particularly those near agricultural zones or the Forest Production District, would be downzoned. For example, some land that now is zoned to allow one home on 5 acres or one home on 10 acres would be zoned for one home on either 10 or 20 acres. Of those, only about 1,100 are vacant. The county now allows only one house per 80 acres in this zone, except where there are existing smaller lots.