CARLSBORG — A state hearings board on Monday lifted the Carlsborg urban growth area from a Growth Management Act sanction.
The decision overturning a 2008 finding of noncompliance and invalidity means that businesses in the unincorporated village west of Sequim can expand.
The county was notified of the board’s ruling late Monday morning, and Clallam County Commissioner Mike Chapman announced it during a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce candidates forum shortly after noon.
Chapman, an independent, is seeking a fourth term on the three-member Board of County Commissioners. He appeared with four other candidates in the Aug. 7 primary election at the forum.
The state growth board determined four years ago that Carlsborg was in violation of the 1990 state growth-management law because the unincorporated community just west of Sequim lacked adequate infrastructure — specifically a sewer system.
While planning for a $17 million sewer and wastewater-treatment facility — and simultaneously disputing the growth board’s April 2008 ruling in court — the county has employed interim zoning controls for Carlsborg that restrict new development.
Last week, the county extended the zoning controls for the seventh time in four years.
“Today, the Growth Management Hearings Board has lifted invalidity in Carlsborg,” Chapman announced, drawing applause from a crowd of about 100 at the chamber luncheon at the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel.
“That just came off the press at 11:30 this morning. That is an issue that [State Rep.] Steve [Tharinger] and I and [County Commissioner] Mike Doherty have worked on for 10 years,” he said.
“That means that as soon as we can, there will be a proposal before the Board of Commissioners to remove the moratorium and businesses that have been desperate to expand in Carlsborg will now be free to look at their property rights and their issues and determine if expansion is right for them.
“In the meantime, thanks to Representative Tharinger’s good work at the Legislature, we also have a financing plan in place to put a sewer in Carlsborg.”
“When we get the sewer, watch that area of the county economically really grow and create new jobs.”
The Carlsborg urban growth area has 113 businesses employing 112 full-time individuals, according to an economic report issued by the Clallam County Economic Development Council last fall.
The urban growth area posted an estimated 2010 gross sales of more than $300 million, according to the state Department of Revenue.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
