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Earlier CDFE Web

 

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The Center received this letter from a small business owner in Washington State, not far from Seattle, the county seat of King County. Americans everywhere need to know of his plight fighting out-of-control bureaucrats wielding arbitrary and capricious power. Government abuse of small business has become endemic in our nation, killing off the seeds of the future. Readers are invited to help this victim of regulators any way they can.

Dear CDFE,
I'm Carlos Cerna. I have a small landscape contracting company that has up to 14 employees at the peak of the season and as many as 7-8 employees at the winter time.

This is my 41st year in the landscape industry. I live in Kent, WA and also spend a great deal of time at the property this is regarding in nearby Renton.

I am single and will have my 64th birthday in October [2008]. I have a son and daughter and five grandchildren. My son, who is an irrigation specialist, works with me in the field. My daughter worked with me in the office for five years, and she just started her own dog grooming business in September, 2008.

I bought a 2.5-acre site in Renton, Washington in Nov. 2005. My family felt it was ideal to relocate the landscape business to this location because it is rural, but yet not too far from shopping. There is a school across from us and a large water tank to our west that belongs to the Soos Creek Water District. I have a neighbor to the north and one to the south and both neighbors love us for how we improved the property.

The property sits on a slight slope that gives us a territorial view and we also have a small nursery. The property needed some TLC - blackberry brambles overran approximately. half of the property, there were windfallen trees, stumps, debris and garbage left by the former owner. We also did some grading and installed gravel so the trucks could have a solid foundation for parking.

King County Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES) claims that we cleared more than 50% of the land in violation of the county's Critical Area Ordinance (cao). DDES also tells us that we have to revegetate up to the 50% limit. They want us to spend $20,000 up to $30,000 to replant native plant material, whereas blackberries are not native to the N.W.

I would also have to put up a cash bond for three years that may cost $45,000 the first year, then they would monitor the plantings for three years and return part of the bond money every year, but I would never get all of it back. They will also charge me  $144.90 per hour per agent for their agency to monitor my replanting. They also say we have to pick up and remove approximately 185 tons of gravel that we put in and re-seed our parking area, which would cost about $18,000.
 
DDES is telling us that we can only use 50% of our property, which we use for our landscape business, but we must pay for 100% of the area in property taxes.

King County's Critical Area Ordinance (CAO), passed in 2004 by the Metropolitan King County Council, prohibits landowners from removing vegetation from more than half of a property larger than 1-¼ acres or more than 35 percent of a property of five acres or more.

However, on July 7, 2008, a three-judge panel of the Washington State Court of Appeals ruled that the ordinance — part of a package of laws aimed at protecting streams and other "critical areas" — is an indirect but illegal "tax, fee, or charge" on development.

Because the CAO was overturned, we are not complying with the county agency's illegal orders. In particular we are refusing to turn in a "revegetating plan" that was due on September 2, 2008. We also are refusing to have the plantings installed by the end of November 2008.
 
The process we have to go through now, even though the county's law has been ruled illegal, is complicated and expensive. King County may serve us with a notice order, which tells us that we have to comply or they will start legal proceedings against us.

If the county serves such a notice and order, then a local property rights group, Citizens Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR), may challenge them. The costs are enormous. We have considered going out of business, which is not fair to the employees that make a living from our business.

If we are to survive, I am sure we will need the help of Citizens Alliance for Property Rights, and we ask concerned citizens who want to help us to contribute to their organization by contacting Jeff Wright, Secretary, CAPR, at jeff@proprights.org.