by Kirk Kirkland
How would you like to make the suburban sprawl around you into a real livable community? The Environmental Coalition of Pierce County invites you to share your ideas at their Environmental Conference this September.
With a Democratic majority on the Pierce County Council, we are living at an opportune time to make things happen. We need to hear from you, about what you want, before we create our conference agenda. At our September Conference, we’ll have County Councilmembers present, talk about potential new legislation, and we’ll discuss how you can get involved. You’ll get to know councilmembers who share your concerns, which candidates are open to your ideas, how to help them get elected or re-elected in November.
Some thirty years ago, Pierce County held an experiment in planning for its Urban Growth Area. It invited citizens to tell the county where they wanted parks and open spaces, which arterials should be commercial, which forests and farmlands should be protected or developed.
Twenty years ago, in a truly democratic grassroots process, members of the communities of unincorporated Pierce County, including Parkland-Spanaway-Midland, South Hill and Frederickson, were asked to join Pierce County planners in learning the language of urban planning and crafting their own Community Plans. This held much promise for livable communities in our future.
But there were problems.
Several pre-plan land uses were grandfathered in. An “out” from the zoning regulations of the new community plans called a PPD was made available. PPDs allowed developers to ask for exceptions from the plans, and pretty soon, PPDs became very common.
Because of this, politics, favoritism, and a general lack of vision for our communities, Pierce County’s planning process for unincorporated areas has never come close to reaching its potential. Instead, it has been deeply flawed and mismanaged. Our county government turned a deaf ear to us, and sprawl continued to dominate in an area with so much natural beauty and potential for livability.
In this year’s election, we have a chance to finally turn things around.
This year, the council coordinated an outreach program that showed the inhabitants of the Urban Growth Area how they proposed to provide homes and jobs for the one million people who will move here in the next 10 years.
In late spring, the county council passed 20 Comp Plan amendments that will shape how Parkland-Spanaway-Midland, South Hill and Frederickson accommodate that next wave of growth. The County Council will need your ideas for how to make these policy changes work in your neighborhood.
Would you like:
- More parks, trails, and recreational opportunities?
- A vibrant community center with programming for young and old alike?
- More affordable day care for young families?
- More trees that cool sidewalks and streets, provide skyscapes, and connect our communities?
- More affordable housing for younger generations and people of modest means?
- Bike lanes that join schools with their surrounding neighborhoods
- Safer streets for pedestrians?
- More art featured in the community?
- A swimming pool or water park?
- the YMCA or Boys and Girls Club to open a facility?
- A wetland, waterway or lake restored for community enjoyment and wildlife habitat?
- Another forest preserve? How about a protected Garry Oak woodland?
Learn about what we can do to fill Clover Creek with water in late summer and how we can keep water companies from running out of water by filling the aquifer under Spanaway and Parkland by collecting increased rainfall in the coming years.
Next month, the date and place of our September Environmental Conference will be set. But first, we need to hear from you. Tell us what changes you think will turn your area’s local sprawl into a vibrant, fulfilling community. Plan on coming to the conference to meet the people who have the political connections to turn ideas into real policy changes. Send your best ideas to Kirkkirkland5@gmail.com
We’re looking forward to meeting you!
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Kirk Kirkland has lived in Tacoma and Lakewood for over 50 years. He’s watched county parks budget grow and parks proliferate. He worked with Tahoma Audubon Society to save hundreds of acres in the county along creeks and wetlands for wildlife, including the birds that welcome us each morning.