Jan. 18, 2006
King County uses development rights transfer to protect 438-acre Carnation Girl Scout Camp
King County Executive Ron Sims today announced an agreement that permanently preserves the 438-acre Girl Scout camp near Carnation as a camp, while allowing additional residential housing density in downtown Seattle.
 Executive Sims is pictured with Grace Chien, executive director of the Girls Scouts-Totem Council and Ada M. Healey, vice president of Vulcan Real Estate. |
Under the terms of the agreement, which was made through King County's Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program, the county received a permanent conservation easement from the Girl Scouts for its 438-acre Camp River Ranch, including half a mile of shoreline along the Tolt River. The easement is free.
City Investors II, LLC, an affiliate of Vulcan Inc., paid the Girl Scouts $210,000 for 14 development rights that will allow construction of an additional 28,000 square feet of residential space at Vulcan's 2201 Westlake project, located at the southwest corner of Westlake Avenue North and Denny Way in Seattle. The 450,000-square-foot, mixed-use project which includes 121 condominiums, 300,000 square feet of office and 19,000 square feet of retail space, is currently in pre-development and is expected to break ground this year.
"This agreement helps keep rural areas rural by allowing a financial return to rural property owners while providing additional housing in Seattle," Sims said. "As our region grows, incentive programs like this will serve us well by preserving our quality of life and also meeting increased need for development."
King County's voluntary TDR Program helps rural property owners sell development rights to urban landowners who are seeking additional residential density. The program protects rural lands for farming, forestry, open space and habitat for threatened or endangered species, while allowing increased residential density in urban areas.
Since 1999, nearly 92,000 acres have been preserved through King County's TDR Program – nearly twice the land of any other TDR Program in the United States.
"Camp River Ranch has been the entry point for generations of girls to the wonders of our natural environment and the experiences these girls have gained have helped to sustain an ethic of environmental stewardship for these girls," said Grace Chien, Executive Director of the Girls Scouts-Totem Council. "King County's TDR program and our partner at City Investors gave us just the vehicle to not only protect this valuable land asset, but put it to work to assure that outdoor education experiences can be provided to many more girls today and in the future."
Peter Steinbrueck, Chair of the City Council's Urban Development and Planning Committee said he is committed to working with King County to expand its TDR program in the new downtown plan that the city is developing.
"This shows the county's TDR program is workable, and can be great way to protect rural lands while promoting downtown urban living and density" Steinbrueck said.
"We are very pleased to work with the Girl Scouts and King County to permanently preserve this land," added Ada M. Healey, vice president of Vulcan Real Estate. "Sustainable development is a core value for Vulcan, and by concentrating on development in urban areas we are doing our part to preserve rural land for generations to come."
The new open space preservation effort is occurring within the Tolt River watershed, which produces about one fifth of all the Endangered Species Act-protected chinook salmon in the Snoqualmie River watershed. The area has been under increasing development pressure.
"This agreement creates a unique and permanent connection of undeveloped land and working farms and forest within the Carnation area," Sims said. "In addition to this property, the adjacent Remlinger Farm, Snoqualmie Forest, Tolt MacDonald Park and Ames Lake Forest have been protected through King County preservation programs."
Metropolitan King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, chair of the council's Growth Management and Unincorporated Areas Committee, said the TDR Program is a valuable, market-based tool in our implementation of the Growth Management Act.
"With this program we enable developers to increase density in the city while protecting open space and critical areas in our rural lands. As our population continues to grow, such voluntary land-use incentives will become increasingly important in achieving our planning objectives," he said.
Larry Phillips, Metropolitan King County Council Chair, called the agreement a win for urban planning and rural conservation, the city and the county, Vulcan and the Girl Scouts.
"Today's agreement to conserve Tolt River property achieves a key recommendation in the Puget Sound's Salmon Conservation Plan by protecting high quality critical spawning habitat. It also allows for increased density in a vital urban area, reducing growth pressure in the outlying areas," Phillips said. "The Transfer of Development Rights Program works well because it protects resources and natural areas through incentives rather than regulation."
Both County Council members expressed their strong support to incorporate rural TDR transfers into the Downtown Plan that is being considered by the Seattle City Council.
More information on King County's TDR program is available here.