PORT ANGELES — Clallam County’s shoreline plan is still a work in progress, and Planning Manager Steve Gray said the public will have ample opportunity to weigh in before the new shoreline master program becomes law.
A shoreline master program is a technical document that aims to protect shorelines by placing restrictions on how they can be developed and used.
They are required by the state under the 1972 Shoreline Management Act, which aimed “to prevent the inherent harm in an uncoordinated and piecemeal development of the state’s shorelines.”
More than 260 local jurisdictions must update their plans by the end of next year to achieve “no net loss of shoreline ecological functions,” according to the state Department of Ecology.
Clallam County’s current shoreline master program was developed in the mid-1970s.
“There’s been some amendments, but those amendments haven’t been comprehensive, the last one being in the early ’90s,” Gray told the Clallam County Planning Commission in a Wednesday work session about the plan.
The nine-member Planning Commission will get a revised draft of the Shoreline Master Program on July 17, which will trigger a 60-day comment period.
The Planning Commission will host a series of public hearings, work sessions, open houses and workshops later this summer and make a recommendation to the county commissioners this fall.
The three commissioners will conduct their own public process with separate hearings and comment opportunities before deciding whether to approve the updated shoreline master program in early 2014.
If two or more commissioners vote in favor of the new plan, it will be sent to Ecology for state approval and become a county ordinance.
Gray said the county’s Community Development Department already has received “a fair amount of comments” on earlier drafts of the update.
“There’s people tracking this,” Gray said.
“They’ve looked at the November 2012 draft. A lot of [comments] are from agencies and the tribes, but a number of citizens have also provided comments.
“That will significantly increase as we go to regional workshops and public hearings of the Planning Commission.”
The 230-page November draft — along with a virtual encyclopedia of supporting documents, maps, public comments and other resources — is available on the county’s website at www.clallam.net.
Click on the “more” link on the bottom left corner of the page, then click “Shoreline Management & Shoreline Master Program.”
Hard copies of the draft shoreline plan are available at public libraries throughout the county.
Shoreline planning updates have sparked controversy in other jurisdictions, including Jefferson County when it passed an update several years ago, because of restrictions to development such as buffer zones and setbacks.
The nature of the restrictions varies widely based on a shoreline’s characterization, existing zoning and the type of development.
Gray outlined the requirements and exemptions for shoreline conditional-use permits and variances.
“The bottom line is existing development that is legally established can be in place and continue to be used, even if the regulations would say that that development today couldn’t be built in that same location as a new structure,” Gray said.
“And that’s key. People want to hear that and make sure that they can still continue to use that [land].”
Ecology will have the final say on shoreline conditional-use permits and variances. The agency denied 101 of the 2,622 shoreline permits that local governments issued from 1993 to 2002, Gray said.
“By and large, the local process does work, but Ecology does have essentially veto power,” he said.
Gray added that revisions to the draft update will reflect a wide range of perspectives.
Pearl Hewett, one of nine citizens who attended the 90-minute work session, said she has spent 2½ years of her retirement researching the shoreline master program. She offered her expertise to members of the Planning Commission.
Hewett said the update will affect 3,300 citizens, some of whom will be restricted from adding a bedroom to their home to accommodate a sick relative.
“Please put yourself in the place of those people when you’re making decisions,” Hewett told the Planning Commission.
“A person that owns their own home is not the bogeyman.”
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
