Nearly 150 people packed into the Lewis County Courthouse commissioners hearing room Monday as county officials worked throughout the day to approve a new plan to comply with the 1990 Growth Management Act.

    At issue was the designation of 90,000 acres of Lewis County as Agricultural Resource Land (ARL). Most property owners in attendance lobbied commissioners, consultants and staff to have their property removed from ARL, a designation that allows for only one residential unit per 20 acres and limits development to agricultural uses.

    While 35 property owners testified throughout two separate hearings and a workshop, only a handful were successful in having their property removed from agricultural lands. In the end, Lewis County Commissioners approved the plan unanimously, and will now await a ruling from the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board.

    For the better part of six years, county leaders have been attempting to make their land designation codes fit with the 1990 Growth Management Act, so the growth board will lift an invalidity order on the county’s land designation process. That would give the county more local control over which lands can be rezoned for development.

    The GMA requires designation and protection of agricultural lands that are not already characterized by urban growth and that have long-term significance for the commercial production of food or other agricultural products.

    Property owners in attendance Monday cited various factors in attempting to remove their property from the designation. Some claimed their property rights were being wrestled away while others lamented their late inclusion in the ARL designation.

    “I don’t know who is going to buy two acres that they can’t put anything on,” Onalaska resident Tracy Steele told consultants, staff and commissioners during his time at the podium.

    Steele’s home was washed away by the December 2007 flood, and he was one of several property owners angry that his small parcel had been included as agricultural land. An existing automotive shop on the property is the only structure that remains, and he said he wanted assurances he could operate it again — an activity that would not be allowed on ARL land.

    The Lewis County Commissioners eventually agreed to remove Steele’s property during the final hour of proceedings. Most others were not so lucky.

    “The best crop I have are thistles that come in with the floodwaters,” said Randle resident David Lee, who was trying to get an exemption for his property just off Kehoe Road.

    Former Lewis County Commissioner Dennis Hadaller was among those unhappy with the designation. Both Hadaller and his attorney spoke before the commission, asking to have at least a portion of his 313 acres he owns near Mossyrock removed from agricultural lands.

    Hadaller, like many others, was unhappy with the fact that ARL lands can only be broken into 20-acre parcels, limiting the property owners’ ability to split and sell land.

    “It’s a sad day in Lewis County when you can’t give your children a two-, three- or five-acre piece” of land, Hadaller said.

    Not everyone who spoke was opposed to the process, or looking to have their land removed. Lewis County Economic Development Council Director Dick Larman spoke in favor of the changes, as did Chehalis resident Eugene Butler, who has been a leading petitioner in assuring the county conforms to GMA requirements.

    Lewis County Commissioners Lee Grose, Bill Schulte and Ron Averill each said they understood the frustration of property owners, but stressed that the county must get out from under invalidity and lift its self-imposed building moratorium in order to grow.

    Averill said that “given the work that’s been done, the result is reasonable,” but expressed discomfort with the process.

    Grose said he would like to close this particular chapter of the GMA struggle, but said the vote was in no way the end of the road.

    Residents who still wish to have their property removed from the ARL designation can apply within the Lewis County planning department, but their property will still be included in the plan sent to the hearings board. For property owners that were only recently included in the ARL designation, the fee will be waived, county officials said.

    “This doesn’t mean the game is over, or that we’re stuck with what we have,” Averill said.

Lewis County’s Growth Management Timeline

1990 — State passes Growth Management Act.

1996 — Lewis County establishes first zoning ordinance.

1999 — Chehalis resident Eugene Butler files a petition contending the county was too detailed in designating agricultural lands and did not comply with public participation requirements of the GMA.

2000 — Vince Panesko, an Eastern Washington resident who owns land in Lewis County, files several similar petitions.

2000 — Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board invalidates much of the county’s rural zoning, prompting county leaders to suspend most rural area building permits.

2002 — Hearings Board approves Lewis County’s rural zoning on all property except agricultural land. County leaders lift rural development moratorium.

2003 — Lewis County approves new agricultural land zoning.

2004 — Hearings board rules county ag land zoning invalid; county commissioners set moratorium on ag land to avoid legal conflicts.

2008 — Hearings board rules against petitioners, but keeps invalidity in place pending the examination of additional agriculture.

2009 — Commissioners list 90,000 acres as Agricultural Resource Land and await approval from hearings board.