Buffer, Buffer, Who gets the Buffer?

As you listen to your favorite practitioner of the Great Green Lie extol the virtues of ever larger buffers on your 5 or 10 or 15 acres, please keep the following photos in mind. The buffer on the stream in unincorporated King County is 300 feet from the edge of the wetland that gets bigger every year. Salmon bearing stream in Unincorporated King County - May Creek Best Salmon Bearing Stream in Bellevue - Kelsey Creek Salmon bearing stream in Renton - Honey Creek It runs in a pipe under the Albertson's parking lot! For the supposed good of all, rural folks are forced to minimize their density, uses, and value while the urban folks are forced to maximize their density, uses, and value to the displeasure of both. The constitution says that property taken for the use of all has to be paid for. Even the US Supreme Court agreed in Kelo that property taken and given to private interests has to be paid for. Environmental restrictions applied to those who have taken the best care of their environment while those who have turned their environment into concrete get a bye is simple theft—not "Smart Growth." If we all had to pay for Gang Green's foolishness, taxpayers might demand a constructive prioritization of projects instead of just making a rural minority pay the costs so that they can feel all warm and fuzzy while destroying where they live.