Growth: It's what's for dinner
It seems earlier this month the Washington Supreme Court made a key ruling involving boundary review boards. From The Columbian:
When Clark County commissioners simply disbanded the boundary review board in January rather than risk letting Vancouver push through another large annexation without a popular vote, it sent a lot of shock waves through the power structure of Clark County.
There are tensions at work between Vancouver and Clark County that could resurface. And as usual, the regular people lose out.
While it's true in the abstract that a city should be better suited to handle urban issues, in the real world, it depends on the city and it depends on the issues. Vancouver won itself no friends on the east side with its gigantic 1997 annexation, and to this day that part of Vancouver bears some of the worst effects of bad planning and high growth rates.
Having the county in charge of large urban areas is not ideal, but it appears to be the way things will be in Clark County. There's no way Vancouver can win voter approval to expand north and west into Hazel Dell and Felida, and now it will face a difficult time annexing to the north and east.
That will doubtless cause the planning types some consternation, but by doing such a poor job in east Vancouver while concentrating on downtown redevelopment, the city has made its own bed.
Politically, the big races in Clark County in 2008 will be for the county commission spots currently occupied by Betty Sue Morris, technically a Democrat but an ardent supporter of development, and Marc Boldt, a Republican with a hard-right bent but a reputation for being a decent fellow on a personal level. Since the going rate for county commission seats is about a cool quarter million now, anyone wanting to challenge the incumbents is going to face a pretty steep hill.
There have been rumors about who may or may not run for re-election and who might challenge whom, but nothing concrete at this point. The third seat is held by Democart Steve Stuart, who just handily won re-election. Observers will now be keen to see if Stuart, who touted his "smart growth" background, will now act in a more vigorous manner on growth issues.
And so it goes. Pave, destroy, pave, destroy, donate. Meanwhile the regular people, who just want decent schools and to be able to drive home after work without sitting in massive traffic jams, will continue to have a jaundiced view of politicians who say one thing and then line their campaign coffers with developer money.
It's the perfect right-wing scam: prove to people that politicians and government are working against their interests, raise some taxes, then make that an issue come election time. Brilliant.
A recent Washington Supreme Court ruling eliminates a key part of the annexation dispute between Vancouver and Clark County that boiled over earlier this year.The case originated in King County, according to The Columbian. The ruling could, the paper notes, prompt legislators to review the applicable statutes.
The state's high court, in a 5-4 decision earlier this month, ruled that boundary review boards have no authority to expand annexations.
The Nov. 9 decision is not retroactive and will not affect the massive 1997 Cascade Park annexation, where the local boundary review board doubled the amount of land that was added to Vancouver.
When Clark County commissioners simply disbanded the boundary review board in January rather than risk letting Vancouver push through another large annexation without a popular vote, it sent a lot of shock waves through the power structure of Clark County.
There are tensions at work between Vancouver and Clark County that could resurface. And as usual, the regular people lose out.
While it's true in the abstract that a city should be better suited to handle urban issues, in the real world, it depends on the city and it depends on the issues. Vancouver won itself no friends on the east side with its gigantic 1997 annexation, and to this day that part of Vancouver bears some of the worst effects of bad planning and high growth rates.
Having the county in charge of large urban areas is not ideal, but it appears to be the way things will be in Clark County. There's no way Vancouver can win voter approval to expand north and west into Hazel Dell and Felida, and now it will face a difficult time annexing to the north and east.
That will doubtless cause the planning types some consternation, but by doing such a poor job in east Vancouver while concentrating on downtown redevelopment, the city has made its own bed.
Politically, the big races in Clark County in 2008 will be for the county commission spots currently occupied by Betty Sue Morris, technically a Democrat but an ardent supporter of development, and Marc Boldt, a Republican with a hard-right bent but a reputation for being a decent fellow on a personal level. Since the going rate for county commission seats is about a cool quarter million now, anyone wanting to challenge the incumbents is going to face a pretty steep hill.
There have been rumors about who may or may not run for re-election and who might challenge whom, but nothing concrete at this point. The third seat is held by Democart Steve Stuart, who just handily won re-election. Observers will now be keen to see if Stuart, who touted his "smart growth" background, will now act in a more vigorous manner on growth issues.
And so it goes. Pave, destroy, pave, destroy, donate. Meanwhile the regular people, who just want decent schools and to be able to drive home after work without sitting in massive traffic jams, will continue to have a jaundiced view of politicians who say one thing and then line their campaign coffers with developer money.
It's the perfect right-wing scam: prove to people that politicians and government are working against their interests, raise some taxes, then make that an issue come election time. Brilliant.
