There are important land use questions on the Washington ballot this year that will have a measurable effect on real estate: Initiative 933 could mean less regulations (or no land use regulations depending on who you talk to) for you and your neighbors (hope you aren’t a NIMBY). Vote Yes! Vote No!
Note: both of those websites are blowing smoke up your you-know-what: while the initiative could cost taxpayers $1300, it would be spread over many years, just like the $1300-per-person new tunnel through Seattle will be spread out over many years. And Washington State has never prevented anyone from walking on their own land.
I’m going to take off my fairness hat here: Initiative 933 is written in such a disastrous way that it doesn’t matter what you believe about land rights, because the only people who are going to benefit from it are lawyers. We need serious land use reform in Washington State, but Initiative 933 is the wrong way to go about it. Good idea, bad solution.
I should mention that if Initiative 933 is passed, we’re going to see some really stupid governmental decisions that restrict rights. Because restrictions that are applied evenly across a jurisdiction are kosher under 933 (at least under most interpretations), rural people are going to be subjected to regulations that only urban people should be subjected to (like sewage regulations, planning and zoning regulations, etc).