News - Local News

POSTED: Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009

Kremen threatens to veto Whatcom County growth plan

County Executive Pete Kremen says he is likely to veto a County Council plan for updating urban growth areas countywide, unless the council abandons a position that is "quite extreme and seems almost punitive toward the cities."

Vetoing the proposal, which the County Council is scheduled to approve Nov. 24, likely would mean the county misses its state growth board-imposed Dec. 1 deadline for finishing the work.

"It's doesn't appear they've taken the work that I and my staff have done seriously," Kremen said. "I'm hoping that the council will reconsider and move forward with a more reasonable plan."

The county is already more than two years late updating growth areas to accommodate the next two decades of population growth. A state growth board set an earlier deadline but then extended it by four months to the current deadline after the county said it needed more time.

Under the law, the board could ask the governor to impose sanctions on the county if it misses the deadline. Those could include withholding tax money.

Kremen said if the County Council approves the law it introduced on Tuesday, Nov. 10, then he'll check with Gov. Chris Gregoire to ensure that if he vetoes the bill and the county misses its deadline, that she won't punish the county. Counties that governors punish are those that are simply defying state law; that's not the case for Whatcom County, he said.

"I feel confident that we will not suffer any sanctions from the state," he said.

His points of contention involve growth plans for the small cities, not Bellingham. His proposal is more in line with requests from the cities' governments. The council generally appears to favor less growth for some of the cities than those cities or the executive want. He mentioned Lynden and Sumas, specifically.

The county planning director told him the council's plan could be "successfully challenged by the small cities" in front of the hearings board, Kremen said.

County Council member Carl Weimer, who has just been re-elected, said he wasn't too surprised about the veto threat, saying "there's a bunch of groups playing chicken with each other." It's too bad Kremen didn't deliver the veto message before Tuesday's council work session on the topic, Weimer said.

He thinks there might be room for negotiation on some of the cities, but "I think the Lynden one with the ag land is going to be the one that's most difficult of finding too much common ground on."

Lynden officials wanted to add urban growth area along Double Ditch Road north of town, where there's good farmland. The executive wanted to add less, and the council wanted to add none.

Lynden Mayor Jack Louws said the city still supports its plan, but "overall I'm very supportive of what Pete has recommended." He thanked Kremen for the "support he's lending to our community."

Louws said the city intends to again present its case for its growth plan on Nov. 24.

"That decision hasn't been made yet, and there's still an opportunity for us to have our voices heard," Louws said.