A few weeks ago, I had a visit from some folks who have some land in Stevens County. The land had been an old home site many years ago, complete with an outhouse and hand dug well. The folks started with a roof for their travel trailer and then they added a concrete floor, and bit by bit they worked to make a little place where they could live out of the rain around their travel trailer. Over the years they gradually made a little place where they could stay for a week at a time and enjoy the bit of peace and quiet they had carved out of the wilderness.

All this was going on and was not hurting anyone, until they ran afoul of a neighbor who wanted them to relinquish an old easement that was not being used any more. The folks did not want to let it go, so the neighbor took offense and, to cause trouble, complained to the health department and everyone else they could think of. Sure enough it did cause trouble. Soon the folks were getting letters stating they were in violation of this regulation and that provision and demanding they pay this fee and that penalty and this application fee and that cost and comply with this and that regulation and on and on. What started as two retired folks just trying to have a little peace and build a little on their own land turned into a nightmare of regulatory violations and requirements for fees and penalties and compliance inspections.

Being conscious of the environment, they had installed a composting toilet and made sure the only water they used from the old well was at the kitchen sink. This water was discharged into a cistern and was then used to water the little flower garden outside the front door. They were shocked to learn that the regulations do not make any provision or allowance for composting toilets. There was no differentiation in the regulations between how the grey water from the sink and black water from the toilet needed to be handled. They were required to install an engineered sewage system at an approximate cost of $8,000. This they do not have. By the way, this property is way off the beaten track, about 4 miles from the nearest paved road, in an area with few neighbors. It is wilderness.

Another sad aspect of this, is that the persons charged with enforcing these laws and regulations do not have any discretion about the application of the rules. The regulations do not give them the power to acknowledge that in one situation or another, the application of a rigid standard is unfair and does not serve the purpose of the regulation. They are not allowed to exercise common sense. They are caught by the system that they must enforce just as are the people who are the subject of the regulation. They must, like all of us, do things they would rather not do.

This is a prime example of people are being held hostage to laws and regulations that make no sense in the world they live in. The rules that control land use in King County should not be applied without taking into consideration that things are different here. The side of Bodie Mountain is different than a Kirkland vacant lot and the regulations should recognize that difference, but they don’t.

It is my firm belief that people have rights. Two of them are liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (Seems to me that I have read those words somewhere in some old document) Building a cabin in the woods to enjoy the peace of nature that God has given us is using our liberty to pursue happiness. It is nonsense to have a regulation that would brand a person a criminal for not being able to afford compliance with regulations that serve no meaningful purpose. We are a land of people. Free People. Our founding fathers did not intend us to be mindless slaves serving laws that do not promote our lives, our liberties, or the pursuit of our happiness.

Perhaps one day we will wake up and realize that our freedoms are being regulated away. I am in favor of responsible land use and reasonable regulation, but our present model of land use control seems to start from the premise that all uses are prohibited except those that the government has decided to allow. I believe that land use regulation ought to be based on the principal that all uses are allowed, except for those which must be reasonably restricted.