The King County Council should reject the County Executive’s proposal for a “transfer-of-development-rights” scheme, Code Chapter 21A.37.

The proposed scheme is the antithesis of “free-market principles,” and is designed primarily to benefit developers; it will do nothing to “preserve” or “enhance” the environment.

Under the proposed code, cities such as Bellevue will be able to concentrate more persons into a constant-size land area, thus leading to increased pollution in the cities, increased demands for new electricity generation, and expanded transportation and utility service. Citizens in such cities will be the losers, while developers within the cities will be the winners.

Further, citizens of such cities will have no right to review, comment, or approve the proposed transfers; rather, the decision to implement such transfers is left in the hands of elected bodies who are captives of the development-oriented growth cabal that governs the Puget Sound Region.

There is no assurance that prices set for development rights are in any economic sense “efficient” prices. Rather, they will be set by a restrictive procedure that will ensure that resources will not be allocated in any “optimal” manner. Development rights prices will not be set by any method remotely resembling a “free-market” system; they will be set by political fiat.

Contrary to advocates’ assertions that this scheme is “smart growth,” it is, in fact, “dumb growth” uninformed by any environmental impact analysis, cost effectiveness or benefit-cost analyses, or any regional land availability or cost information. Administration by county committees (as proposed under the code), will only further isolate citizens from participation in the transfer activity.

This proposed legislation is exactly what county citizens do not need: further governmental interference in land-use/development markets that benefit an exclusive set of regional power-brokers.

David F. Plummer, Bellevue