“Rural character” is not easily defined, but certainly it would not by preserved by building hundreds of suburban homes clustered on a mountainside. And if an urban growth boundary is to be a genuine boundary, it would not make sense to build small suburbs just over the line.

For those reasons and more it is correct for the city of Wenatchee to appeal, again, Chelan County’s recent changes to its land-use plan that would allow relatively dense residential development just south of Wenatchee. Of particular concern are the stated plans of two landowners to develop up to 230 homesites on 521 mountainous acres south of Squilchuck Road and west of the Malaga-Alcoa Highway. No plans have yet been filed, but landowners indicate they will develop homes in clusters on the benches and against the bluffs, and leave most of the land in open space. The county’s comprehensive plan changes would allow this. The city says this would violate the Growth Management Act in principle and fact by allowing urban-density development outside the urban growth boundary. The Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board agreed in an earlier appeal, sent the matter back to the county, and the county again approved substantially the same changes, for the same potential development.

It is difficult to look at the mountain and not agree with the original assessment of the county’s planners, that the land is too steep and the hillside soils too subject to erosion, enough to create a hazard for those who might make them home. Even if developers are able to overcome the engineering and geological difficulties, the homes would create a definite “visual impact” and would not be in keeping with the rural character of the area. That is what Growth Management rules are meant to protect.

If the hearings board sustains this appeal, as it should, city and county officials should again combine their efforts for a common goal: orderly and logical growth that preserves the beauty of the foothills that surround Wenatchee. That is possible to the south of town, and the north and west. City and county should work together with these ends in mind.

This is the opinion of The Wenatchee World and its Editorial Board: Editor and Publisher Rufus Woods and Editorial Page Editor Tracy Warner.