I’ve been told wine gets better with age, unfortunately the same cannot be said for Washington’s Growth Management Act (GMA). Implemented in the early 1990s, the growth management law has been praised for its many claimed benefits, yet the true results present more challenges than the alleged merits. The GMA has aged in such a way that Washington families suffer rather than benefit.

For example:

• confusing rules, which special interest groups leverage for their own priorities
• courts which unfairly legislate from the bench using the GMA to regulate water
• restrictions on job growth for rural counties
• rising costs for homes and rentals
• debates on farmland preservation
• fights over solar development

This week, GMA brought another challenge to the King County Council in the form of wineries, breweries, distilleries, and even a few meaderies contesting their existence in the unincorporated county near Woodinville. Obligations under the GMA to protect rural character and preserve farmland are forcing the county to update winery regulations because of rapid growth in the adult beverage industry.

In the last decade, Woodinville became one of the hubs for Washington wine. The majority of the county’s 198 wineries are very new with three-quarters of all existing wineries becoming licensed since 2006. This growth has created 750 jobs in the Sammamish Valley and 1,882 jobs in greater King County. Labor income in 2013 was $68.8 million and revenues totaled $357.6 million. Additionally, the area is home to 169 other alcoholic beverage producers. Many of these tasting rooms serve as satellites of Eastern Washington wineries, allowing these agricultural businesses to be near their customer base.

In April, King County Executive Dow Constantine, introduced a proposal to update the winery and adult beverage regulations. Last Tuesday, the King County Council held a formal hearing on the proposed regulatory changes. Despite multiple years of research and input from stakeholders the current proposal is still too onerous for small business owners.

The proposal includes a classification of wineries, breweries, and distilleries based on lot size, arterial access, and building size. The classification system is used to dictate business license requirements, building size, water source, capping parking space allotments, prohibiting tastings for certain classes, stopping business owners from living on site, dictating product content (sourcing 60% of grapes from on-sight), and limiting allowable events. Existing businesses are not grandfathered, which means some businesses would have to dramatically change their operation or shut down.

Instead of addressing specific and understandable concerns regarding traffic and after-hour events, the proposed ordinance addresses an excessive amount of factors. If the current form is allowed to proceed, the cost will be the end of many small family businesses in exchange for the unquantifiable benefit of protecting the ‘quality of life’ for King County residents.

This proposal is excessive even for the GMA. Multiple testifiers spoke about the end of their business if the regulations went into effect as written. One testimony from the City of Duvall’s mayor took advantage of the excessive regulations by saying, “If King County can’t accommodate your businesses the Snoqualmie Valley will.”

The effect of these regulations will extend outside of King County as many of these tasting rooms are satellites of Eastern Washington vineyards. Franklin County Commissioner Brad Peck said, “The wine industry has been a significant source of new jobs in eastern Washington in recent years. Excessive regulation of the industry in western Washington risks driving industry interests, and those jobs, to other parts of the state, including eastern Washington. While we would welcome the economic, cultural and tax value of such a shift, it would needlessly damage the industry’s statewide reputation, which ultimately costs us all ( Source).”

As the King County Council moves forward with amendments and additional hearings on this proposal, hopefully the final decision will promote Washington’s wine economy and address the specific concerns of traffic and large events. A final decision that reflects the current proposal and bows too deeply to the GMA, would eliminate thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in sales, hundreds of thousands in tax revenue, and many small family businesses.