Pic credit: JHallman
In 2021, Tyler Chambers, 59, purchased 66 acres in rural Chelan County, Washington, with his wife, Wendy, planning to construct a home. In five years, he spent nearly $300,000 on regulatory requirements, including wildlife studies and geotechnical reports, according to a report by AgWeb. The land they bought seemed perfect: it was zoned residential, had power, PUD water, fibre and paved-road access, with other homes nearby. Everything looked promising for the small-business owner from a farming family. He had plans to build a family home and pole barn, plant some orchard acreage, and dreamt that his children or grandchildren would build on the property later.
Then the state allegedly asked him to place roughly 44.2 acres, about two-thirds of the property, under a permanent conservation deed restriction as environmental mitigation before he could build his home. The regulators asked him to permanently set aside 44.2 acres, which is roughly two-thirds of his 66-acre property, as mitigation, according to Chambers. They demanded almost everything we owned, meaning 44 acres of our private property placed in a deed restriction; two-thirds of our land.
We’ve been targeted, and I know we are the only ones in Chelan County’s history ever to do a SEPA for a regular house,” he told the outlet. But then the process became a bureaucratic maze. The county asked for more reports and studies, including assessments of stormwater, spotted owls, golden eagles, deer, shrubsteppe and geotechnical risks. Tyler Chambers’ proposed home in Chelan County nevertheless became the subject of SEPA-related review. The process was unusually burdensome, but there is no independent evidence that his was the only single-home SEPA review in the county’s history. Now came the most extraordinary requirement. “We were completely shocked. It was obvious that everything we’d been required to do up to that point was part of a fixed game. I can’t properly describe the emotional damage to my wife, Wendy, and the loss of faith we’ve suffered in our county and state, along with extreme financial and mental stress. His consultant, Glen Grette of Grette Associates, reportedly testified before a hearing examiner that mitigation was never intended to be a deed restriction. Nothing in the county’s own rulebook justified such a massive restriction for erosion control on a single-home site. Yet the county dug in.
Chambers remains determined to build his dream home While the requirements have caused him severe financial trouble. “I’ve learned that if you stay silent or try to appease, your situation only gets worse. I’m a changed man now, and I’m not afraid to speak out against governmental abuse at all levels. One thing is certain: We will build our home on our own land.”