Town is groomed for growth
County backs plan for Black Diamond

By ED PENHALE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

King County officials are setting the stage for a huge annexation that would add nearly 2,000 acres to the little southeast-county city of Black Diamond, designating more than 900 acres of that now-rural area for urban development.

County Executive Gary Locke, who supports the proposal, sees Black Diamond as a future site for high-tech businesses.

Intel Corporation recently chose the town of Dupont in Pierce County forthe site of a major new computer assembly plant because Intel could find no site it liked in King County, noted Tim Ceis, policy director for Locke.

The Metropolitan King County Council is expected today to pass an ordinance that would launch talks on how and when annexation of 1,927 acres controlledby three companies would occur.

The city of Black Diamond consists of about 3,050 acres and 1,900 people.

The expansion proposal envisions matching residential development withbusiness growth to provide jobs for new residents. Over 20 or 30 years, thepopulation of Black Diamond could swell to 15,000, said Wally Toner, lobbyistfor Plum Creek Timber, a key landowner.

While providing attractive sites for high-tech industry development, theplan also would set aside thousands of acres as permanent open space andnatural resource lands.

That would protect natural areas and prevent widespread rural estatedevelopment, permitted under current zoning, from precluding light-industrydevelopment, Ceis said.

The county comprehensive land-use plan adopted last year outlined apossible 3,000-acre urban growth area surrounding Black Diamond. The stateGrowth Management Act requires the county to make any major changes to thecomprehensive plan by the end of this year.

The ordinance before the council would establish a new urban growthboundary around Black Diamond that would add the 1,927 acres owned by PlumCreek Timber, Palmer Coking Coal and Black Diamond Associates.

Of that acreage, 915 acres would be developed over 20 to 30 years or more.The remaining acres would be designated as open space.

To maintain Locke's goal of setting aside four acres of open space forevery acre developed, property owners in the Black Diamond deal wouldcontribute other lands to open space. As a result, the 915 acres designatedfor development would be matched with 3,660 acres of open space.

Under the ordinance, the owners of land in the growth area and officials ofKing County and the city of Black Diamond would have until Dec. 31, 1996, towork out which 915 acres would be developed. T

The verdict must be unanimous among the negotiators or the deal would unravel. If that happens, Black Diamond's new urban growth area would revert to its current rural-area zoning, Ceis said.

Although Palmer Coking Coal will participate in the talks, the company is concerned that the development plan could reduce development prospects for more than 1,000 acres it owns within existing Black Diamond city limits, company manager Bill Kombol said.

A guiding principle of the development proposal, however, would be to phase development within existing city boundaries before spreading into the growth area, Ceis said.

County Councilwoman Maggi Fimia said she was worried that residents of the Black Diamond area won't have much of a say.

"This looks like an agreement that's almost been reached," she said at a council briefing on the plan.

Ceis said opportunities for public comment will be provided as the plan, which requires final approval by both the County Council and Black DiamondCity Council, is negotiated.