GMA: When is Agricultural Land Not Agricultural Land?

Yakima Herald Republic Online - By DAVID LESTER

"Yakima County and a rural property owner have won a third court decision in a longstanding dispute over changing farm land to a use that allows housing.

A Yakima County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that the county acted properly when it approved a 2001 rezone for almost 1,100 acres on Naches-Wenas Road, northeast of Naches.

[snip]

"The case has followed a tortuous route with two visits to Superior Court, twice to the hearings board and once to the state Court of Appeals.

Each time, the courts found for the county in a rezone that will allow housing developments of 5-acre lots on land that has poor soil, no water right and hasn't produced a commercial crop."