Barbs are flying between a developer and the chairman of the Snohomish County Council on the value of building mini-cities in rural areas.
Developer Dave Barnett teamed up with powerful consultant Ron Dotzauer of Strategies 360 to mail a flier to homes and launch the Web site
Keep Snohomish County Affordable Barnett wants to create such a community of 6,000 people near Lake Roesiger and has been rebuffed by the Somers-led council majority.
On each link of Barnett’s Web site’s is the headline “Somers for Sprawl” and includes a black-and-white drawing of the politician’s face. Somers – who may be the council’s most left-wing environmentalist – wasted little time responding. He created a Web page of his own and gave it the same name of Keep Snohomish County Affordable. (Barnett’s is a dot.org and Somers’ is dot.com)
Somers calls Barnett’s effort a “smear campaign” and promises additional reaction in the coming days.
This is a new twist in what’s been a heated land use issue. The council majority has put a kibosh on these types of developments. Here are links to stories on a moratorium on mini-cities and the supportive position of the county planning commission.
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