Why paving farmland isn’t the solution:

Land is expensive and long term we need to build more ballfields and parks for our kids in the communities we live in, not farmland.

Farmland is artificially cheaper because we have a smart national policy of growing our own food and protecting farmland to do so. At the federal level we the taxpayers put billions into keeping farming viable.

On the state level we the taxpayers of the state put 80 million a year to keep farmers property costs low.

When farmland is developed for other purposes the developer is walking away with part of that millions we the taxpayers put into the land to keep it farming.

The County not doing their job.

The county has claimed they can’t find land or that it is too expensive. Again, they haven’t done their job and haven’t thought creatively.

Examples of possible land for ballfield complexes: DNR sites. These lands could be traded for lands DNR manages for the county called County Board lands.

There are three very viable sites that I have found by taking a cursory look around. Good dry land that could make good fields:

- A site at Harbor Point

- A site in Lake Stevens

- A site on Route 9

The Cathcart property surrounding the covered landfill has lots of potential sites and the county owns lots of land there on SR-9.

The covered landfill itself is also a potential.

The county could also require developers to provide enough park and ballfield land for the new residents as development comes to our county. This would at least keep the problem from getting worse.

An example of a Mayor doing her job. When I contacted Snohomish Mayor Liz Loomis she came up with a potential site for four little league fields that are on ground the city owns and with a little money for grading and parking could make a very good site.

Another example is City council member Tony Balk of Monroe alerted me that field money was being raised for called a Miracle Field for disabled kids that would be open year round to other kids. Again, city property and part of the solution.

Long term we need to make kids, ballfields and parks a priority, not an afterthought. The county needs to be creative, find land, require more of developers, and build some parks.