Dear HCN,
I read with interest your
Tucson sprawl article, but saw no solution (HCN, 1/18/99). Here in
rural King County, thanks to Seattle politicians, we have all the
downzoning that accompanied this state’s 1990 Growth Management Act
(GMA). That act was the result of newcomers’
I’m-here-pull-up-the-gangplank mentality. The GMA called for a
pristine countryside surrounding infilled cities. The
once-suburban-now-rural countryside was downzoned from one home per
acre to one home per five acres. Urban areas were intended to be a
minimum of four homes per acre, with the emphasis on more than
that.
In a relatively short time the theory has
been tested. With an explosion of jobs fueled by the technology
industry, including Microsoft, high-paid workers have flocked here.
They built mansions on the five-acre “country” lots and left cities
to the lesser paid.
But with the urban land
supply constricted by inviolable growth boundaries, and powerful
city neighborhoods refusing to accept growth, high-rise apartments
are displacing the old low-rise urban-core buildings that house the
numerous small businesses that have nowhere else to go. This means
small-business wipeout.
The little affordable
housing is either government-mandated or government-subsidized.
Like growth-controlled Portland, Seattle is one of the most
unaffordable cities in the nation. This has resulted in long
commutes for low- and average-income workers to distant counties
where growth is not yet a problem and prices are still affordable.
The answer appears to lie in ever-more state-government edicts to
the growth-pressured cities: Accept your allotted infill population
quotas or you’ll get state sanctions, including loss of funding.
The city folks do like pristine countrysides, but they resolutely
oppose infill in or near their own neighborhoods. What is the
answer to the problem, other than shutting down the jobs that draw
newcomers? Or isn’t there an answer, other than ever-more
controlling government?
Maxine
Keesling
Woodinville,
Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline How we ended up with rural mansions.
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