By Larry Dzieza
As Anne Kilgannon wrote this summer about the action plan to save the LBA Woods, concerned citizens are beseeching the Olympia City Council to remove the construction of a road through the heart of the LBA Woods from their plans.
Dozens of speakers and letter writers have tried to get the Council to take action and focused on the November 2nd Olympia Council meeting where they were briefed by their professional staff on the Road project. Disappointingly, the Council took no action to stop the road, which they could do with a simple majority vote of four members. Nor did they vote to evaluate the road as part of the upcoming Comprehensive Plan annual amendment process which closed on November 20, 2020.
With the Council failing to act, an ad hoc group of citizens submitted their own comprehensive plan amendment before the deadline on behalf of our community, the legacy we leave to our children and the planet.
A Comprehensive Plan amendment
is a very structured technical process usually used by developers to permit
more development not less. The next step is convincing the City Council members to
allow the preliminary amendment to pass through their
“screening process”. If they
vote to do so, it goes to a final comprehensive plan amendment
review. The Council is expected to take that “screening” action around
late January or early February.
As Ms. Kilgannon’s
article noted, the longer the road remains in the plan, the more momentum there
will be for it to be built. Beyond words
and policy pronouncements, this simple action of removing the road from its own
plans is the best expression and proof that the Olympia Council is committed to
protecting the environment – a pivot point in what “business as usual” means in
the new context of the climate challenges facing us.
You can click here to read the text of our amendment and you can support stopping the road through the LBA Woods by contacting the Council by writing or speaking on the topic. Click here for more information on contacting the Council.
