PORT TOWNSEND — After months of review and revision, Jefferson County commissioners accepted the county Planning Commission’s proposed recommendations for updating the county Shoreline Master Program.
“We struggled one way or another,” Planning Commission Chairman Peter Downey told the county commissioners Monday before the commissioners set a 6 p.m. Sept. 8 public hearing on the latest draft.
The hearing will be in the Superior Courtroom on the fourth floor of the county courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
Downey added that the planning panel’s volunteer members changed their votes back and forth on difficult and complex issues, including shoreline buffers.
Buffer widths
Downey said the most controversial issue involves buffer widths.
The Planning Commission reduced the marine shore standard buffer to 50 feet along shoreline residential and high-intensity shoreline growth designations.
The panel included provisions to encourage locating structures along no- and low-bank marine shores at an elevation to avoid potential threat of sea level rise because of global climate change.
Having received about 480 written and verbal comments on the proposal, Downey explained that environmental interests and property rights advocates have opposing viewpoints when it comes to shoreline buffers.
“They can’t come to an agreement, I think, as to how they should be,” he said, adding that buffers are generally needed to provide water quality.
“This is probably something you will want to hear more from the public on,” Downey told the county commissioners.
County Department of Community Development staff originally proposed a 150-foot buffer on all marine shorelines.
Conservancy shorelines, which are relatively undeveloped and natural areas, are proposed to have the more stringent 150-foot buffers.
A 100-foot buffer proposed on lakes remains in the proposal.
A 150-foot buffer also remains on streams and rivers in the county.
Property rights advocates called on county leaders to leave alone the existing 30-foot buffers from the high-water mark.
The Planning Commission contends that the 50-foot buffer is adequate for residential shoreline areas or more intensive shoreline uses.
The Planning Commission’s other recommendations to the county commissioners largely support the December 2008 preliminary draft shoreline master program.
Michelle McConnell, associate planner and Shoreline Master Program update project manager with the county Department of Community Development, said the DCD staff would give its final recommendations for the update in about two weeks.
The project schedule has shifted slightly to allow more review time before the next round of public comments.
The county commissioners are expected to conduct the next public comment period on the latest draft starting Aug. 19, ending the period with a public hearing.
The commissioners will consider residents’ comments as they deliberate over the proposal in September.
They are expected to take action in October to forward a locally approved proposal to the state Department of Ecology for the final review and adoption process.
Ecology will also open a comment period and public hearing. Final adoption is anticipated in mid- to late 2010.
Jefferson County is required to update its program in compliance with the state’s 1971 Shoreline Management Act and the 2003 Shoreline Master Program. All jurisdictions in the state must update their shoreline master programs by 2014.
To see the proposal, visit the county’s Web site www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment/ShorelineUpdate_2005-9.htm.
The document will be posted online with hard copies available at the Department of Community Development, Jefferson County Library in Port Hadlock and the Clallam County Library in Forks.
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
