Jefferson County Commissioner-elect Greg Brotherton said Thursday, “our codes are standing in the way,” of economic growth and promised regulatory reform by reducing the size of the county’s Unified Development Code (UDC) upon taking his seat on the Board of County Commissioners at the end of the month.
“I want to find money in the budget to look at the UDC and the codes that we have. I think our codes are standing in the way. I think that’s the biggest thing,” Brotherton said following a December 6 meeting of the Port Ludlow Village Council Board of Directors.
Thursday’s meeting was the first time Brotherton appeared before the council since the campaign for District Three commissioner. Brotherton carried Port Ludlow in the November 6 election and told the council that he sees the election results as call to action.
“The mandate I really feel, especially from my District Three voters, is to remove the impediments of growth and development, for everyone from the homeowner to the small business owner like me to the larger developer,” said Brotherton. “I think we can work on our permit process in our critical areas to encourage development.”
Brotherton said he wants to, “make some significant cuts,” to the UDC, the voluminous and often arcane plan for property and land management within the county. The scope of the UDC states that, “no building, structure, or land use activity shall be engaged, erected, demolished, remodeled, reconstructed, altered, enlarged, or relocated, and no building, structure or premises shall be used in Jefferson County except in compliance with the provisions of this code and then only after securing all required permits and licenses,” and has been criticized for limiting growth and new development in the county.
Brotherton’s pledge to make cuts the UDC comes as Jefferson County commissioners grapple with the need for new revenues which have not always kept pace with spending. The new General Fund budget proposal is expected to run a 3.6% deficit for 2019 and is estimated to draw-down the county’s Unreserved Fund by approximately 10%.
According to county Central Services Director Mark McCauley, the 2019 deficit budget plan is estimated to slow the rate of decrease in the Unreserved Fund, draining is by 77% over the next five years. Last year, it was projected the fund would be reduced by about 87% over the same time frame.
The rate of new development was also an issue in the 2019 budget proposal. County Administrator Philip Morley noted in his December 3 budget memorandum to the BOCC that, “The value of new construction is added to the tax base, which, for the last eight years in Jefferson County has averaged 0.8% per year.”
When asked whether streamlining the UDC could effectively raise the value of new construction in the county and broaden the tax base in the process, Brotherton could not commit to a specific level of growth through regulatory reform but made clear, “That’s where I want to start.”
Given the statutory limits on how much government can raise property taxes in any given year, the issue of growing the tax base has become more critical in recent years. During the campaign, Brotherton expressed support for the Pleasant Harbor Master Planned Resort in Brinnon, which was approved by the county earlier this year only to face legal challenges by a group of people who are opposed to the development.
While no firm figures are available on how much the Brinnon resort would add to the county’s tax base, the project is reckoned to generate millions of dollars in property tax revenue once fully developed.
Related: Jefferson County’s 2019 Budget: Increased Spending, Declining Revenue, More Deficits
Scott Hogenson is a prize-winning journalist who has been a member of the academic staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he lectured in the School of Journalism and served as managing editor for the Wisconsin Public Radio News Network. Scott has also been a contributing editor for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., a broadcast editor for United Press International, and a news director for radio stations in Virginia and Texas.
Decades ago I coined the phrase “natural vs contrived” (or manipulated) property development. By my definition “natural” development is when property owners divide their land (twenty acres into 2 ten acre plots, ten acres into 2 five acre plots, etc) as demand grows for additional parcels and homes. Larger parcels lying next to cities and towns could be short platted into lots for urban-style housing. This is the way land was divided for growth in Washington State decades ago. Then came the carpet-bagging developer and along with him “contrived” growth, where owners of large rural land parcels were allowed to short plat such parcels and build huge developments comprised of hundreds of homes. While providing market priced homes, such developments put immense pressure on rural infrastructure by overburdening county roads, schools, emergency services and groundwater supplies. Such developments also utilized septic systems in lieu of urban-style sewage systems, further compromising groundwater of neighboring property owners. Look no further than to Kitsap County to see how this has worked out for rural communities, and will work out in the future as huge development projects are forced into low density areas in South Kingston and Port Gamble.
Here is one long-term resident who counts himself as opposed to “contrived” development of rural communities (including the Pleasant Harbor Resort in Brinnon) which will only bring increased traffic and low-wage tourist industry jobs to Jefferson County. Instead, let’s develop the “natural” way, by (1) encouraging and enabling property owners to divide their land, (2) restricting high-density development to properties near to existing high-density housing, and (3) seeking to attract businesses and industries that require family wage workers. Rather than yearly eating our seed corn to make ends meet, let’s broaden our industrial and retail tax bases. Lacking this kind development, Jefferson County will continue to devolve into one of the most backward, economically depressed counties in the state.