rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/save-our-rural-lands-stop-bar-holdings-uga-swap?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-save-our-rural-lands-stop-bar-holdings-uga-swap' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Climate Alliance for Affordability and Rural Lands https://actionnetwork.org/groups/climate-alliance-for-affordability-and-rural-lands https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg For a sustainable future and for housing affordability, we need our Thurston County jurisdictions to agree to build up, not out. We need them to plan for dense, walkable urban neighborhoods near the urban core. This reduces driving and greenhouse gases and increases affordability. It costs on average $10,000 per year to own and operate a car. But Thurston County and the City of Tumwater are instead planning for dense walkable neighborhoods in rural areas. The first of these is the "Bar Holdings UGA Swap" proposal to build over 200 new housing units, grocery store, YMCA, office buildings, and storage facilities on 33 acres of rural land on Sheldon Road (south of the Olympia Airport). Development like this far from the urban core would increase driving and greenhouse gases and reduce affordability. The problem is that developers are pushing this idea because developers believe they can now use 2022 legislation called the "UGA swap law" to buy rural land on the cheap and then change the zoning by moving the land into the Urban Growth Area so they can develop it. As a result, no rural land near an Urban Growth Area is safe from being developed or from being surrounded by development. Doing the Bar Holdings UGA swap would set a bad precedent. And it would violate the ideals in the Sustainable Thurston Plan.  That plan calls for building no more than 5% of new housing units in rural areas. Thurston County currently builds 14% of new housing in rural areas, and this percentage is only getting worse. See Sustainable Thurston Report Card | Thurston Regional Planning Council, WA (trpc.org). The Bar Holdings development would increase this even more. Make your voice heard. Tell the Thurston County Commissioners and the mayor and council of Tumwater that you want them to follow the Sustainable Thurston Plan and not allow the Bar Holdings UGA swap. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-our-rural-lands-stop-bar-holdings-uga-swap