MALTBY—A long-running dispute between Snohomish County and Flower World has escalated over whether the 46-acre nursery and greenhouse operation should be classified as an agricultural enterprise or a retail business, a distinction that could carry major consequences for permitting requirements, taxes and the future of similar farms across the county.
It’s the latest county-led challenge to Flower World after a long history of challenges throughout its 57 years of operation—from arguing that a park project was on a protected wetland (which a court determined it was not), to pushing back against cider production (ruling they could not sell unpasteurized products that requires refrigeration), to requiring a solid waste permits to accept yard debris from customers to name a few.
The most recent pushback relates to clearing a former single-family home on two parcels immediately south of the main 15-acre nursery, constructing two 4,500-square-foot pole buildings with sheet metal roofing, paving and gravelling roughly 45,920 square feet for a mixed-use parking and plant-holding area, and installing a new driveway entrance onto 200th Street SE with a connecting paved roadway. County officials said the work triggered land-disturbing activity (LDA) permits under Snohomish County Codes 30.63A and 30.63B because it exceeded thresholds for new impervious surface and clearing.
Flower World Owner John Postema refers back to a citizens initiative called the ‘Right to Plow’ which was passed in 2001, by a vote of 56.78%, and essentially gave farmers distinct rights from developers, allowing farmers to construct, and maintain, fences, bridges, roads, ponds, drains, waterways, conversion of streambanks, and conversion of one agricultural activity to another without the same permits developers would need to obtain.
“What did we do different here?” Postema stated. “In the last 50 years we’ve done the same thing we’ve already done.”…