PORT ANGELES — For the seventh time in four years — and probably the last — the three Clallam County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to extend interim zoning controls for the Carlsborg urban growth area.
Interim zoning restricts new development while the county continues to work its dual-track response to a 2008 state hearings board ruling of noncompliance and invalidity for the unincorporated hamlet that supports more than 1,000 jobs west of Sequim.
Four years ago, the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board found the 12-year-old Carlsborg urban growth area to be in violation of the 1990 Growth Management Act because it lacked a sewer.
The county appealed the ruling while it continued to develop plans to build a $17 million Class A sewer and wastewater-treatment facility.
County officials have said the sewer will eliminate groundwater pollution from old septic tanks and provide infrastructure for economic and residential growth in the coming decades.
Commissioners
In a public hearing, Commissioners Jim McEntire and Mike Chapman expressed frustration over bureaucratic delays and the hearings board’s refusal to lift the order of noncompliance and invalidity despite a 2011 Court of Appeals ruling in the county’s favor.
“I am very interested in seeing the bureaucratic process draw to a swift conclusion,” said freshman Commissioner McEntire, whose district includes Carlsborg and the eastern third of the county.
“This has carried on far too long and inhibited and prevented legitimate activity for far too long.”
He added: “Whether or not that we agree or disagree with the environmental need and the legal requirement for a wastewater-treatment facility in Carlsborg, for the future, it would appear that’s the best course moving forward.”
Chapman, a 12th-year commissioner who is seeking election to a fourth term in November, said he is skeptical that the nonelected hearings board will reverse its ruling, which he said has “stymied economic growth in Clallam County for four years.”
“I think at some point, county leaders have to just make a decision and say this is our community, this is our zoning, these are our decisions and if someone doesn’t like that, take us to court,” Chapman said.
“I’m really frustrated beyond belief that it has taken this long.
“I do not believe the Western Washington Growth Hearings Board has any intention of ever answering the county.”
Chapman said he has voted to extend interim zoning controls based on the advice of the county’s legal team.
Past extensions have been for six months rather than three months.
“I think a decision point for the county commission to move on is coming sooner rather than later,” Chapman added.
“I think it’s been patently unfair that we’ve let the Growth Hearings Board dictate to our county how we do businesses.
“I’m willing if you want to support three more months, but the odds of me voting for an extension in late August are about zero at this point in time.”
McEntire agreed.
“I, too, am uninclined to kick this any further down the road,” he said.
Commissioner Mike Doherty, who participated in the meeting by speakerphone, reserved his comments for a future meeting.
Operated by PUD
The sewer would be operated by the Clallam County Public Utility District after it is built.
The county received a $10 million loan from the state to build it. The loan would be paid off through the county’s Opportunity Fund over 30 years at 0.5 percent interest.
In a staff report, county senior planner Carol Creasey said the county has revised its draft facilities plan to move percolation ponds from a county parcel along Matriotti Creek to the PUD’s property at 110 Idea Place, where the soil is more permeable.
Creasey said the move will save the county at least $360,000.
Key dates in a revised timeline for the project are:
■ Late August: State Department of Ecology approval of the revised facilities plan.
■ August 2013: Engineering and design of the sewer completed.
■ January 2014: Construction begins.
■ March 2015: Construction completed.
■ July 2015: Initial customers connect to the sewer.
“You’ll hear me say that we need to compress the schedule of next steps that was provided by staff by at least a year,” McEntire said.
“This seems to be far too long before there’s an actual working infrastructure in Carlsborg.
“It is high time that landowners, business owners and so forth and so on in the Carlsborg UGA have access to the full extent of the law as it relates to the use of their property,” McEntire added.
Motion to dismiss
On the litigation track, Clallam County has filed a motion to dismiss the ruling of noncompliance and invalidity.
The hearings board “essentially punted their findings of fact back to the Court of Appeals,” Clallam County planning manager Steve Gray said.
“Essentially, we’re asking them [the hearings board] to make a decision,” Gray said.
Several Carlsborg residents and business owners expressed support for the removal of the interim zoning.
“Obviously, the business community would like to see this resolved as quickly as possible,” Don Butler said.
Pam Schneider urged the board to consider the business community as well as residential property owners in creating financial incentives for hooking into the sewer.
She also endorsed a joint study of the Clallam County Economic Development Council and Carlsborg Business Owners Association that found the area supports 1,050 jobs and generated nearly $2 billion in goods and services from 2006 to 2010.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
