Most everyone has heard that Jefferson County is interested in creating affordable housing and jobs. We have heard that over the past 15 years, at least. But housing costs continue to escalate and jobs are scarce.
Our children know this. They mostly have to move away to find a job and housing they can afford. So, why, after all the talk, do we not have affordable housing and jobs?
To understand this we must first understand that even in this day of virtual reality, data on the cloud and telecommuting most jobs are at a physical location. An actual place where work is done. Whether the job is manufacturing, retail sales or service industry, they all require a place to do the work. So, land and buildings are a requirement.
Housing also requires a physical location. No one as yet can live in a virtual apartment or house.
A piece of land is a requirement as is a building. But, first you need to have the “right” under zoning regulations to perform the particular business or construct housing on any particular piece of land.
We do not lack land in Jefferson County, but we do lack appropriately zoned land. As an example, should Tesla wish to build a manufacturing facility to manufacture one of their new green battery powered vehicles they would need to find an appropriately sized and zoned piece of property. Next they would have to propose the facility, buildings, etc. by applying for permits from the Jefferson County Department of Community Development.
They would need a good sized piece of industrial zoned land. We have the land. Rayonier (formerly Pope Resources) has large tracts of land. But, there is no large parcel of land in Jefferson County that is zoned for industrial activity. Under the Growth Management Act we could designate an area for a large manufacturer but the county never has done it.
Of course, some would say that Tesla, or any other industrial or manufacturing concern, would never locate here. Many excuses could be made–not enough people, not enough transportation. But most likely the fundamental reason is that there is not enough vision by our leadership.
Next, let’s look at affordable housing. There are over 300 subdivisions in Jefferson County. Subdivisions used to be done but no more. They used to be done by developers to lower the cost of a single family home. Rather than build one home on a 5 acre parcel the land it could be subdivided under State of Washington septic rules into as many as 17 building lots. The lots could then be sold to individuals so affordable single family homes could be built.
This is no longer being done as Jefferson County implemented a minimum 5 acre lot size, in some cases the minimum is 10 or even 20 acres. This has resulted in stopping many potential single family homes from being built. The existing building lots have escalated in value. Basically, the minimum lot size rule ended affordability in single family homes.
Then there are apartments. The problem with apartments is that due to tightened septic rules they have to be hooked-up to a sewer system. The City of Port Townsend is the only place where apartment buildings can be built in Jefferson County unless and until a sewer is provided in Port Hadlock.
So, affordable housing and jobs have been stymied by rules. Rules created by our elected officials. It might be a good time to reflect on this.
Craig Durgan is an engineer and businessman who has been instrumental in moving the Hadlock Sewer Project forward. Craig was recently elected Chair of the Jefferson County Republican Central Committee.
The Jefferson County Comprehensive Plan and Jefferson County Code 18.15 Land Use Districts were designed to preserve the rural character of the County while at the same time allowing some development in limited areas.
The result is a legislative constraint on the supply of usable land.
Anyone who has taken Economics 101 or is simply aware of the laws of supply and demand will understand that increased demand for a limited supply will almost always cause the price to increase.
Even if all county land used constraints were removed, one still might not expect much in the way of increased land use. To be sure, more housing might be built, but housing is generally correlated with area labor requirements. But because there is limited economic development in the county, the demand for labor seems to be fairly static.
Further, it seems unrealistic to hope for much of an increase in the demand for labor as the result of economic development. Firms generally locate themselves in areas where there is an optimal supply of qualified labor, banking and professional services, transportation, vendors and customers. For most firms, these elements (and most especially qualified labor and transportation) are not to be found in rural areas like Jefferson County, but in cities.
In general, I agree with Mr Durgan that land use in Jefferson County is severely constrained and ought to be relaxed. But while relaxation of constraints might lead to somewhat lower housing costs, it likely would not lead to much economic development.
We will never know the potential of Jefferson County in regard to economic development with constraining land use regulations.
Hi, and thank you for the good, basic and informative article. As a developer of smaller parcel land packages in the Quilcene area I’ve seen increases in land costs, permitting, and developing on every level of the project. As you know, Only a very small percentage of land in Jefferson county is privately owned with most being in state and federal ownership. That meant having to have the resources to buy larger parcels and then subdivide . The projects started with finding larger parcels that could be divided into 5 acre tracts, designing and building access routes(terrain can be tricky), and installing power and water. Permitting was always slow and very expensive in time and in dollars. JC subdivision requirements triggered other agencies requirements(like PUD, WSDOE, or Tribes) that could seriously impact the project. No one should be surprised that there are so few houses for sale or build-able lots. The Growth Management Act has made lot development and living here very expensive.