PORT ANGELES — With two Clallam County commissioners split, action on an appealed conditional use permit for a zipline park in the foothills south of Port Angeles was continued on Tuesday.
A decision is expected next month after the third member of the board, Commissioner Steve Tharinger, returns from vacation and can review the testimony from Tuesday’s 90-minute hearing.
Commissioner Mike Doherty said he was leaning toward upholding Hearing Examiner Christopher Melly’s decision to allow Green Planet Zipline Inc., to build a $1.8 million zipline course and eco-park on 40 acres of commercial forest land leased from the state Department of Natural Resources. He said the traffic caused by the development would not be significant.
Commissioner Mike Chapman said he was leading toward granting Nils Sundquist’s appeal of the conditional use permit because Lake Dawn Road is too primitive. Chapman said more traffic analysis was needed, and that Lake Dawn residents are opposed to the project.
Seven ziplines
Dan Williams, project manager and chief executive officer for Green Planet Inc., wants to operate seven gravity ziplines in the foothills off Little River Road.
The paying public would be taken to the closed site in one of two passenger vans from downtown Port Angeles.
At the site, thrill seekers would harness up and whisk down the mountainside along overhead cables ranging in length from 380 feet to 1,586 feet.
Launch platforms for the ziplines would be built in the trees. The eco-park park would have one cable suspension bridge.
Williams, who started a feasibility study in August 2006, hopes the park will make Port Angeles and Clallam County a tourist destination and a cruise ship stop.
“Our goal is to create new green collar jobs that support the local economy,” Williams said.
The vans would make 16 rounds trips per day during a 178-day season on a one-way loop to minimize traffic impacts on both sides of Little River Road.
The route would loop south on Hurricane Ridge Road, head west to the zipline park via Lake Dawn and Little River roads. Visitors would return to Port Angeles on Little River and Black Diamond road.
The route was one of 22 conditions that Melly imposed when he granted the conditional use permit on Dec. 23 of last year.
Sundquist argued that the process to approve the permit was not consistent with county’s comprehensive plan and the Growth Management Act.
He said Lake Dawn Road is a substandard county road and road conditions were not properly considered by county staff.
“For all intents and purposes, Lake Dawn Road is a one-way road used for two-way traffic,” he said. “Drivers must react quickly due to very limited sight distances.”
Road too narrow
Sundquist said Lake Dawn Road is too narrow to accommodate the extra van traffic and cited several exhibits in the record — testimony from concerned Lake Dawn residents who submitted comments to the hearing examiner — that addressed traffic concerns.
Sundquist said the road’s level of service should have been the standard rather than the traffic count.
“Families use that road every day as a sidewalk,” he concluded after about 40 minutes of remarks.
Williams said the vans will reduce the number of vehicles traveling to the site fivefold.
Doherty said he is familiar with traffic patterns along Little River Road. He said the additional traffic caused by the zipline park would not be significant.
“I’m sympathetic to the road department, the [Department of Community Development] staff and the hearing examiner that yes, it may be incremental, but it is not significant in the big picture,” Doherty said.
He said the county would be open to widen both ends of Little River Road, adding that Lake Dawn and Black Diamond residents have opposed this work in the past.
“If pedestrian safety is a major concern, irregardless of this project we should have that discussion with the neighborhoods,” Doherty said.
Green Planet could further mitigate traffic congestion by keeping vans off the road when school buses and logging trucks are known to be using the road, Doherty added.
Chapman said he is leading toward repealing the permit because residents are opposed.
“In my opinion, the [Lake Dawn] road is substandard for a commercial-type development,” Chapman said.
Other conditions in Melly’s decision included formal plans for fire protection, solid waste management, drainage and erosion.
Five parking spaces would be built at the site. The building would be a single-wide mobile home, which would serve as a headquarters for the ziplines and eco-park.
Decisions made by the commissioners, who act in a quasi-judicial role in close record appeals, can themselves be appealed to Clallam County Superior Court.
If approved, the conditional use permit is valid for three years with the option of a one-year extension. If the park is built in that time, the permit becomes valid indefinitely.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
