I-933, Irresponsible Development Initiative

Inspired by the passage of Measure 37 in Oregon, land speculators and those promoting irresponsible development launched their Irresponsible Development Initiative, I-933 in Washington. We’re hard at work to defeat it. With your help, we can do it.

I-933 has been filed and the sponsors are gathering signatures to get it on the November 2006 ballot. I-933 is a radical, destructive and poorly drafted attack on our protections for clean air, clean water, working farms and thriving, livable communities. It was drafted with assistance from the Building Industry Association of Washington—the far-right statewide trade association for the development industry.

Defeating I-933 is one of Futurewise’s highest priorities. If this initiative passed, it would be a catastrophe for citizens and communities across Washington state.

I-933 is a much-anticipated follow up to Oregon’s Measure 37, which rolled back that state’s land-use protections. I-933 requires state and local taxpayers to pay for land-use protections that fall within its broad definitions or waive the rules. Because governments cannot afford to pay developers for the right to enforce our laws, they will waive protections. The clean drinking water, working farms and quality of life that we enjoy would be up for grabs.

Who does this benefit? Irresponsible developers who don’t want to keep these critical protections. Who is hurt? The taxpayers, the neighbors, our communities. I-933 would overturn safeguards to ensure that development keeps pace with schools and roads, so that children have a good education and parents don’t sit in traffic for hours each day. It would roll back protections that keep drinking water aquifers free of contamination, and that keep wells from going dry. It would strip away limits on the size of junkyards and gravel mines in communities across the state.

Initiative 933 is arguably the most radical and extreme rollback of community protections our country has ever seen. If passed I-933 will require state and local governments to either pay property owners before enforcing laws that restrict the use or value of real or personal property value or waive the laws. It applies to a wide variety of laws that impact the use of real or personal property. I-933 has no date restriction for most types of laws, and defines restrictions in ways that retroactively extend the initiative’s reach to land use and other protections that have been in place for decades.

It would effectively dismantle city and county zoning, the Growth Management Act, the Shorelines Management Act, the Forest Practices Act and many other laws that protect communities, water quality, and the environment. By invalidating several of Washington’s basic environmental laws and eliminating most limits on irresponsible development, I-933 will generate major increases in water pollution, air pollution and traffic. I-933 will generate broad and irreversible negative impacts on neighborhoods; on Puget Sound; on wetlands, forests, rivers and streams and farms; and on the people and wildlife that depend on them.

Futurewise is helping lead the campaign against I-933. To get involved, please visit http://www.NOon933.org.