Status of BAR Holdings

We are still waiting to know what the Washington Department of Commerce decides to do: will it follow its mandate to not make policy, or will it decide to make policy and create regulations that don't follow the UGA Swap Law. As you recall, the swap law was improved in 2024. That improvement said you can't do a swap if it would increase development capacity inside an urban growth area. That rule is in place because, well to put it simply, who wants to live in an urban growth area without greenbelts and open spaces? If you let developers swap out greenbelts and swap in other land that they then pave over with urban development, that makes the quality of life inside the urban growth area worse.

Of course, the developers' attorney did some legal hocus pocus to twist the statutory language around and make people think that the 2024 law doesn't apply to all swaps. But any judge would rule against that interpretation. Unfortunately, the Department of Commerce isn't legally trained like a judge and is vulnerable to being lead down the garden path. Developers say their interpretation allows "flexibility" for local governments and creates "affordable housing." But if the urban growth area has run out of room, there's already an existing mechanism to fix that: expand the urban growth area.

And so-called "affordable housing" that is far from bus routes, bike lanes, and employment centers is not affordable. Transportation costs are a large part of a low-income family's budget.

Whether the Department of Commerce falls victim to the tricky legal maneuvering of the developers' lawyers remains to be seen. We'll let you know when we find out.