PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County commissioners scheduled a public hearing for April 27 on a proposal to protect property owners from flooding in the Duckabush, Dosewallips and Big and Little Quilcene rivers but is opposed by those who believe they should be governed under the Shoreline Management Act.
The hearing is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. in the commissioners chamber on the ground floor of Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St.
The Planning Commission and Department of Community Development recommend that “high risk” channel migration zones be written into the critical areas ordinance.
Channel migration zones are where rivers historically meander at flood stage over time.
“This is to address solely what the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board wants in the Jefferson County Code,” said Donna Frostholm, Department of Community Development associate planner, addressing the county commissioners Monday.
Frostholm said the county commissioners have until May 18 to take action.
While three parties have recommended that medium-risk channel migration zones be included in the ordinance, Scalf said that would not be the case.
Neither the planning commission nor staff recommends the regulation of medium-risk zones, only high-risk zones, Scalf said.
Property rights group
Olympic Stewardship Foundation, a Jefferson County property rights group, states in its comments to the planning commissioner that the proposed amendment is out of compliance with the final decision and order by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board.
The comment letter, dated March 18, is signed by OSF President Jim Hagen and Teren MacLeod, Bud Schindler, Ken Brooks, Dennis Schultz, Roger Short, John Richmond, Bill Wheeler and Diane Johnson.
The foundation cites the legal decision in Futurewise v. Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board stating, “The Legislature intends that critical areas within the jurisdiction of [the Shoreline Management Act] shall be governed by the SMA and that critical areas outside the jurisdiction of the SMA shall be governed by the [Growth Management Act].”
Prohibition of development in the high-risk channel migration zones within 200 feet of the shoreline jurisdiction is improper, OSF contends.
Other points OSF makes to the county:
• The county’s best available science on channel migration zones fails to provide scientific assessment of what areas constitute low-, medium- or high-risk to support the restrictions on development and use of property in the high-risk areas.
• County maps are “much too general” to specifically identify the distinctions between low-, medium- and high-risk channel migration zones.
• The county should survey which high-risk properties might be affected and inform the owners.
Although the county commissioners could have passed the proposal Monday, they opted to set a hearing.
“People do lose their property, if not their lives, in these areas,” county Commissioner John Austin said. “Some houses can’t get insurance because they are designated as channel migration zones.”
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
