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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, Copy editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Growth impacts more than just local geography

It is hardly news that our area is growing.

In 1950, the whole of Snohomish County had about 111,580 people -- or about 34,000 fewer people than the seven, relatively small communities the Enterprise now covers.

Of our largest local cities -- Shoreline, Edmonds, Lynnwood and Mill Creek -- only Edmonds existed. It had 2,057 people.

The impact of that growth is often felt in predictable ways. Our schools, neighborhoods, even our ways of life are changing rapidly.

Some stories of growth are intuitive and easily understood.

Others, like news that Mountlake Terrace is scuttling its Board of Adjustment, are not.

With a Board of Adjustment, local land disputes were solved by local people. Your neighbors and your peers sat in judgment. Now, under the new Hearing Examiner system, disputes will be solved more efficiently by paid legal professionals.

Most cities converted to a Hearing Examiner system long ago. Mountlake Terrace is reportedly one of Washington state's last holdouts.

We believe a step towards professionalism is probably for the best, especially for a community with as colorful a recent history of disagreement as Mountlake Terrace's.

But the appropriateness of the change is momentarily beside the point.

Once a rural remove, our backyard is now a suburban spread and is increasingly becoming urban. We see that every day.

Losing the area's last Board of Adjustment should slow us down. It should remind us that growth changes more than just our streets and homes.

So much of our civic discourse is dedicated to managing the changes growth forces upon our physical environment. That is a good and worthy effort.

However, Mountlake Terrace helps remind us this week that it is time well spent contemplating the changes growth has upon ourselves as well.