In a move that caught county officials and developers alike clearly by surprise, the Suquamish Tribe has filed a lawsuit in Kitsap County Superior Court to overturn the recent Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board (CPSGMHB) decisions on the Urban Growth Area (UGA) boundaries for the McCormick Urban Village, also known as ULID #6, the South Kitsap Industrial Area (SKIA), and the Kingston UGA.

The McCormick Urban Village was slated to accommodate an anticipated 10,000 new residents, and was the subject of quite a bit of controversy when it was originally proposed. The Kitsap County Planning Commission originally voted 9-0 not to approve the plan. That vote was overridden by the county commissioners and the proposal moved forward from there, after undergoing some major modifications to address the Planning Commission’s concerns.

The SKIA area encompasses almost 2,100 acres (of which only about 500 are actually buildable due to watershed considerations)and was set to be the targeted site for industrial expansion in the south end of county. It was envisioned to provide somewhere near 9,000 new jobs over a 20 year build-out.

Expansion of the Kingston UGA was set to serve an additional 256 new homes as well as some commercial uses.

The suit, which names Kitsap County and McCormick Land Co., alleges that the CPSGMHB erred in ruling that the three sub-area plans and their inclusion in the county’s comprehensive plan complied with the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA).

The Suquamish Tribe, along with the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, City of Bremerton, Citizens for Responsible Planning and Port Orchard resident Jerry Harless, originally appealed the issue to the CPSGMHB, along with the adoption of the proposal to increase density in the rural wooded areas by allowing cluster development.

The case was known as City of Bremerton et. al. vs Kitsap County et. al., and dubbed Bremerton II by the CPSGMHB.

The CPSGMHB ruled that all but the rural wooded area issue are in compliance with the GMA. The rural wooded area issue was remanded back to the county for additional work.

But in a much more foreboding move that could have an extremely far-reaching impact, and be used to literally stop development of any kind throughout the state if upheld, the tribe is also suing to overturn the vesting provisions of the GMA. These allow governments to grant development rights on lands that have been declared in compliance with GMA regulations even though groups like the tribe continue to litigate after the fact.

The result is that the tribes could, by filing an ongoing series of lawsuits over minor issues, stop, or at least delay, development almost permanently.

Two state legislators, who asked not to be named due to the fact they are running for re-election and understand the potential volitility of their statements, concluded that If the tribe wins on this point, and the state loses on appeal, it could put the state in the position of being forced to repeal the GMA if any development is to occur in our state.

Just the day before the suit became public, during a presentation to the board of directors of the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council (KREDC) held at the tribe’s Clearwater Casino, a spokesman for the tribe was asked why it didn’t participate in the county’s planning processes instead of appealing the results to the CPSGMHB as is its usual practice when a planning effort is finally finished and adopted as part of the county’s comprehensive plan.

The spokesman, Leonard Forsman, answered, “It’s a manpower issue for us. It’s usually easier for us just to appeal than to deal with the process.” When it was pointed out to him after the meeting that land use processes usually take at least a year and usually twice that long, and that the tribe’s usual course of action routinely costs the taxpayers of Kitsap County hundreds of thousands of dollars and the landowners involved a great deal of time and money in addition to denying them the use of their land, he just shrugged and said, “That’s just the way it goes, I guess.”

Commissioner Jan Angel, expressed her disappointment at the tribe’s move. “If you choose not to sit down and help with the planning, and yet appeal at the end, you’re affecting housing, jobs and the taxpayer’s wallet,” she commented. “The appeal process costs hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars that could be better spent on lots of more pressing needs, while an appeal only costs about the price of a meal in a nice restaurant.”

Angel added, ”These are the most environmentally friendly master-planned communities this county has ever seen. On SKIA, they’re appealing the one area that would provide the most jobs and job potential in the entire county.”

Just recently, the tribe was specifically asked to participate in the current joint planning effort between the county and the City of Port Orchard aimed at expanding the Port Orchard UGA for the next GMA-mandated 20-year planning period. The purpose of asking the tribe to participate was to avoid a future appeal. But as usual, the tribe is noticably absent from the effort.

“My main concern,” Angel said, “is, what does the future of Kitsap County hold, if we can’t go forward with jobs or homes?”.