The legendary "Seattle Way" of doing government business is to hold a slew of hearings and make a ton of Power Point presentations, take a bushel of incoming paperwork from the people and give them a bushel of stuff back - then have a couple of more hearings just because the decision is hard and may offend someone and the decision makers have no desire to offend anyone.

It doesn't always work, in fact often it does not work.

A study at the University of Washington's Economic Policy Research Center said a basic cost of the landmark Growth Management Act may be a primary driver in sending housing costs zooming over the horizon.

The study shows that all the regulations in the Growth Management act have added $200,000 to the price of every home, often doubling the actual construction and real estate costs.

Getting back to the "Seattle Way," the city, county and state did all those things. Hand wringing and wild shouting matches echoed from Ballard to Phinney Ridge and way beyond to Duval and Snoqualmie and even to Enumclaw.

The decision was to put all the people into the towns and cities - especially in Seattle - and leave the farmlands and rural area a pristine green area forever more.

Some have been asking since the early 1990s if we really knew what we were doing and do the citizens of Ballard really know what that policy means to each and every resident?

The fact is the cost of regulating that policy is sending housing prices so high that we think it is time to revive a famed saying of the 1970s - "Will the last person to leave Seattle, please turn off the lights." Well the lights for the average citizen, that is, because the rich and important will have the money to live here and enjoy the views.

Put simply, we need to stop legislating and regulating right now. We have three choices, keep it up and drive the average citizen out to Zillah; halt all the regulations and become like Los Angeles or Houston; or have a deep, long study of the consequences of this mountain of regulation and determine if it all really is in the best interest of the citizens and if it really is doing what we say it should do.

We think we need to keep Seattle from becoming a huge terra-reforming project like Phoenix, but we also think the reality of that regulation needs to involve the neighborhoods, the cul-de-sacs and the coffee klatches so that those who pay the taxes can really know what it all means.

Now we do know it means a lot of money, but what exactly are the consequences for the future of Ballard?

-Jack Mayne