PORT ANGELES — Little River Quarry owners Mike Shaw and George Lane will have to wait another week to find out whether the three Clallam County commissioners will uphold a hearing examiner’s decision that their 40-acre quarry on Olympic Hot Springs Road qualifies as an erosion hazard under county law.
After a lengthy closed record appeal hearing on a critical area determination on Tuesday, in which Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Doug Jensen said he would file a motion to dismiss Shaw and Lane’s appeal today on behalf of the Clallam County Department of Community Development, the three commissioners postponed their deliberations to a special work session next Tuesday at 9:15 a.m.
Clallam County Pro Tem Hearing Examiner Lauren Erickson confirmed June 18 an earlier decision made by Clallam County planners that the 40-acre quarry on Olympic Hot Springs Road qualifies as an erosion hazard under county law.
The determination doesn’t prohibit the quarry from operating, but it does require its owners to develop a storm-water management plan to comply with the critical areas ordinance.
It was determined to be an erosion hazard in part because it is built on 40-degree slope, has soil and nonconsolidated rock.
Jensen said he would file his motion to dismiss the appeal on the grounds that Shaw and Lane have no basis to appeal and that the commissions don’t have the authority to decide the issues raised by the appellants.
‘Last minute’
“Your argument at the last minute seems highly irregular and highly inappropriate considering we’re in the middle of a closed record appeal,” Commissioner Mike Chapman said in response to Jensen’s motion.
Any decision made by the commissioners, who are acting in a quasi-judicial role during this step in the appeal process, can be appealed to Clallam County Superior Court.
Shaw and Lane have until 4:30 p.m. Monday to submit a response to Jensen’s motion.
The county Department of Community Development said it will waive its reply to the appellant’s response in the interest of time.
The commissioners had 60 days to rule on the hearing examiner’s decision. The deadline is Tuesday.
25 attended
About 25 residents attended the hearing, but none signed up to speak.
The appellants submitted a report from ADA Engineering to the hearing examiner that disagreed with the county’s designation of the property as having “moderate, severe or very severe erosion hazard potential” because of the shallow soil.
Lane cited what he saw as a discrepancies between county codes between designation and classification and official designation.
He said he doesn’t dispute that the site has a 40 percent slope. He argued that the code for official designation gives the administrator the authority to override designation and classification.
Separate steps
“Classification, designation and official designation are three separate steps in a process,” Lane said.
“We’re not asking that the classification standard be changed. We are asking that the official designation of our site be changed based on the best available science provided by qualified professional sources.”
Shaw further outlined what he sees as discrepancies in the code.
Commissioner Steve Tharinger said changing county code is part of an elongated legislative process.
“Once the codes are written, our job, the staff’s job and the hearing examiner’s job is to really interpret the codes as they are written,” Tharinger said.
“If there’s inconstancies in those codes, that consistency has to be addressed in the legislative process, not in an appellate process.”
Shaw said he testified in 1999 that about what he sees as inconsistencies.
“I feel the county had lots of opportunities to address these and has chosen not to,” Shaw said.
Clallam County planner Steve Gray said the codes are presumed to be compliant.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
