Farmers and preservation groups urge changes to King County critical areas ordinance; staff outline proposed buffer increases

Chair Sarah Perry and County staff spent the bulk of the April 16 Local Services and Land Use Committee meeting on proposed updates to King County's Critical Areas Ordinance, a Growth Management Act‑required review that staff say must be updated by the end of 2025. Public commenters from the Snoqualmie Valley and other unincorporated areas urged the council to slow the process, strengthen farm engagement and adjust specific proposals before code changes are finalized.

The committee heard repeated concerns that proposed riparian and wetland buffer expansions in the staff and executive proposals would reduce farmable acreage, lower land values and create new compliance burdens when land transfers occur. "If you take away the future possibility, you take away value in the land," said David Hawkinson, who identified himself as a farmer at Jubilee Farm in Carnation. "Who's gonna pay for it?" Erin Erickson, identified as director of the Snoqualmie Valley Watershed Improvement District, told the committee the farm caucus recommendations from the Farm‑Fish‑Flood (FFF) process had not been fully integrated and that the proposed ordinance, "as written ... fails to reflect the farm caucus recommendations."

Why it matters: county staff say the updates are intended to align county regulations with Best Available Science (BAS) and state Growth Management Act obligations, including the state requirement for no net loss of…