For the past several years the State of Washington, through the Puget Sound Partnership, has being leading the charge to stop negative impacts of development on the environment. Millions of dollars have been spent at all levels of government to regulate development by using Low Impact Development techniques. These regulations include retention of native vegetation, rain gardens and many other techniques that are meant to capture pollutants and eliminate stormwater runoff.

Unfortunately, the State-led process has not been successful. Local jurisdictions have been slow to adopt restrictive regulations, in part because many of the Low Impact techniques are unproven and state regulations don’t allow application based on a site-by-site analysis. As initiatives such as Low Impact Development regulations are adopted to protect the environment, it is important to realize that top-down approaches will limit local jurisdictions and not provide them with the flexibility they need to be successful.

Read the full Environmental Watch here