Press Release from Whidbey Environmental Action Network (Contact Steve Erickson or Marianne Edain (360) 579-4202)
The Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board yesterday rejected the City of Oak Harbor’s challenge to Island County’s refusal to enlarge the City’s Urban Growth Area (UGA) for low density residential development. In a 43 page decision, the Growth Management Hearings Board rejected all of the 16 separate legal issues raised by the City.
Beginning in 2005, the City had sought to enlarge the size of its UGA to be sufficient to accommodate 126% of its projected population in 2025. The City argued that the County must defer to its choice of this “market factor,” but the state appeals board upheld longstanding precedent that the Growth Management Act vests responsibility for determining UGA boundaries with counties, not cities.
Whidbey Environmental Action Network had intervened in support of the County. WEAN objected to the expansion because it would eliminate farmland, degrade significant wetlands, block north-south wildlife movement on the island, and result in urban sprawl.
Oak Harbor had sought to expand its UGA onto an operating commercial farm west of the City (the Fakkema farm). The farmland is adjacent to and drains into Swan Lake, a nationally significant wetland complex where nearly 1/6 of all bird species ever reported from North America have been observed. A WEAN Board member analyzed the Land Capacity Analysis (LCA) the City produced to justify expanding its UGA. She found that the City had made numerous errors in its analysis and that it drastically underestimated the available capacity in the City without enlarging the UGA.
The City now has until Jan. 2 to appeal the Hearings Board’s decision to Superior Court. Unless appealed, the Hearings Board’s decision lays to rest this 7-year long attempt by Oak Harbor to sprawl out onto surrounding farmland. WEAN will continue to work with Island County to enforce land use and environmental laws that prevent the wholesale sprawl and environmental degradation which expansion of Oak Harbor’s UGA would cause.
