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Property owners tell Thurston County commissioners enforcement and reclassification practices are harming owners
Summary
Several residents told commissioners that county planning and compliance practices have repeatedly reclassified land and imposed costly supplemental environmental requirements, leaving property owners facing expense and uncertainty.
Property owners and residents told the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners on March 25 that county planning and compliance processes have left them facing repeated enforcement actions, property reclassification and expensive extra studies.
Shelly Dilworth, who identified herself as the owner of property off 101st in Delphi, said she bought the site in February 2017 as commercial‑industrial property and later learned the county had deemed it residential without what she described as due process. "It is not okay that because of this determination, we will lose money on our property when selling it going from commercial industrial to residential," Dilworth said.
Dilworth described ongoing disputes with county planning and compliance staff, saying she has worked with named employees — "Josh, Brett, Sandy, Arthur, Greg, and others within the planning and compliance departments" — but that the same compliance letter and enforcement issues have recurred over an eight‑year period. She said the site was formerly a rock quarry and later an unmanned fire station and that repeated compliance actions have prevented her from using the property as she expected when she purchased it.
John Pettit, a Rich Road resident, questioned what he described as an extra environmental review process within the county's Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) department tied to an internal biologist. Pettit said Thurston County averages "17 to 18" reasonable‑use exceptions per year over the last four years versus about four per year in Kitsap County and argued that the extra process imposes additional costs on property owners. "You charge for this extra process ... $231 an hour for CPED employees. An employee costs about $60 an hour. So it's profit to you," Pettit said.
Speakers urged the board to convene additional public meetings to hear affected landowners, to review departmental procedures and to consider paying for wetland studies rather than requiring property owners to pay repeatedly for studies they say are rewritten by staff. The comments occurred during the public comment period; no formal enforcement changes or staff directives were recorded during the meeting.
Commissioners did not announce any immediate policy changes at the March 25 meeting. The public comment period does not produce formal action unless the board places an item on a future agenda for staff response or policy change.
