By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch Pierce County officials will be in Graham Thursday evening to talk to citizens about land-use-related topics involving the county's future, including one that's raising some eyebrows within the Bethel School District. An open house is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. at Kapowsin Elementary School, one of the schools in the district that Bethel officials believe would suffer from zoning changes that are being proposed by the county as part of an updated comprehensive plan. The plan has been a guide to development countywide for the past 20 years and is nearing the end of a review that will help map growth for the next 20 years. The update process is expected to end in June, followed by the plan's approval by the County Council. The finished product is required to meet state requirements and changes in land-use laws. According to county officials, the new plan will be similar to the current version, as the majority of policies will be retained. Bethel School District officials are challenging a proposed change that calls for rezoning land in the Graham, Eatonville and Roy areas. The conversion to a designation of Agricultural Resource Lands (ARL) would affect approximately 50,000 acres, increasing the amount of ARL-zoned land from the current 11,000 acres to 65,154 acres. The acreage would be in a combined 5,452 parcels of property. A resulting change in development regulations could make it harder for property owners to use their land in certain ways. For the school district, there could be limitations on remodeling or expansion of existing school sites, including Kapowsin Elementary, Graham-Kapowsin High School, Cougar Mountain Middle School and Bethel Learning Center, according to district officials. The zoning change could also make it harder for the district to some day build a fourth high school on property it already owns in the Graham area. Another potential problem cited by district officials that they say could affect schools negatively stems from possible restrictions on development of private land. That could affect property values and the ability of the district to generate money for running schools and construction projects via bonds and levies. Bethel superintendent Tom Seigel has urged the county to reconsider and avoid the potential drawbacks of ARL zoning. He outlines the district's concerns in an open letter he sent to the County Council. The letter is printed in The Dispatch today on page 5. According to the county, the proposed change involving ARL zoning would remove a requirement that soil on such land must be capable of yielding at least 3.5 tons per acre of grass, which would be important to livestock owners for feeding the animals but would be "immaterial" for growers of fruit, vegetables and nursery plants. The county says it has notified by mail all landowners who could be affected and has held open houses in rural areas, including Eatonville, to explain how the revised ARL zoning affects potential uses of land. County officials say the updating of the comprehensive plan is a time for the public to understand the way land-use, transportation and regional parks figure in long-range planning for growth. "This is the community's opportunity to learn how Pierce County will deal with growth in the unincorporated area over the next 20 years," said Debby Hyde, special-projects coordinator. At the open house at Kapowsin Elementary tomorrow, planners will answer questions, but there won't be a formal presentation. Citizens can "drop in any time" during the two hours, Hyde said. Other open houses, also from 5 to 7 p.m., are scheduled for April 20 at McMillin Grange at 12615 State Route 162 and April 23 at Bonney Lake Senior Center. A draft of the comprehensive plan's update, along with a schedule of other upcoming public meetings on it, is available at www.piercecountywa.org/compplan
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