Challenge
In the early 1990's, Blackhawk Port Blakely was proposing to develop 2,250 acres at Grand Ridge overlooking Issaquah. The land straddled the newly adopted urban growth boundary imposed by King County under the state Growth Management Act. Obtaining permission to build its mixed-use development proved especially tricky, given that the County was still evolving its policies on growth management and there was strong political pressure to hold the line in the foothills of the Cascades.
 
Approach
As the developers negotiated a compromise with then County Executive Gary Locke, we executed an aggressive public outreach program. We conducted a 400 sample opinion survey to identify concerns and messages. Five large public meetings, a number of small neighborhood meetings, and an open house were held to solicit opinions. Nearly 570 people returned response cards. All of this helped not only gather information, but also demonstrated that Blackhawk Port Blakely was listening to the community. People recognized that the area was growing and that growth had to happen someplace, but they wanted to preserve the rural character of the area as much as possible and they wanted to solve traffic problems.
 
We were able to communicate two major components of the compromise that was being worked out with the County. These were the set-aside of larger areas of permanent open space and funding for construction of a new Sunset interchange on I-90. We were able to rally support and neutralize opposition by aggressively communicating these two components.
 
Eventually, the plan was reconfigured from an originally disbursed development to a denser, master-planned community, in which 3,250 housing units would be developed on just 490 acres. A total of 1,520 acres would be set aside as permanent open space. Ultimately, because the changes in the plan responded to public concerns, we were able to frame our communications so there was political 'cover' for successful negotiations.
 
Results
The negotiations were a success and the project is under construction, renamed as Issaquah Highlands. The open space agreement formed a new County standard - the four-for-one rule - for projects being developed along the urban-rural divide, in which four acres of open space were set aside for every acre developed. The new interchange formed an important new access route to the plateau, relieving traffic in other areas.