The Board of County Commissioners gave county staff its guidance on four property owners' requests to change their properties' shoreline environment designation (SED).
Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) Senior Planner Andrew Deffobis discussed the four specific shoreline reaches requiring designation changes on Monday, September 25.
These designations determine appropriate land and water uses and development standards.
The landowner of a parcel on Pattison Lake desired to retain the existing split designation of shoreline residential and conservancy.
According to WAC 173-26-211, shoreline residential facilitates residential development while ensuring public access and recreational opportunities along the shoreline.
The Planning Commission presented a proposal to the board of commissioners. They suggest deciding whether to:
Deffobis said that the property owners are attempting to preserve the flexibility to utilize the parcel in its current state, with their concern being the potential inability to sustain some of the trails, landscaping, dock, and similar features.
“Going forward with something like a Shoreline Residential or Urban Conservancy does leave more doors open for future development than natural wood. That's not what they're talking about doing now. But that is part of the calculus,” stated Deffobis.
The board decided to maintain the current split of the parcel, keeping the Shoreline Residential designation but changing the conservancy to Natural to protect untouched shoreline areas and sensitive functions.
The Commissioners were tasked with deciding the SED for the east side of Eld Inlet at Green Cove, where most of the eight properties on the reach were designated as Rural Conservancy to protect ecological functions, except for one parcel, which was desired to have a Natural designation as requested by a homeowner association.
The board also approved converting one parcel on the west side of Eld Inlet to full Shoreline Residential use. It designated another west-side parcel as a Rural Conservancy while maintaining the proposed Natural designation for its surrounding area.
The board mentioned their commitment to balancing input from landowners while ensuring consistency in environmental designations across shoreline reaches as they work on updating the county's Shoreline Master Program.
The commissioners also emphasize the importance of having all necessary information before making decisions, particularly regarding impactful decisions that could potentially violate the state constitution.
“I don't want the county taxpayers to be stuck in a liability situation because we made a decision without all of the information that we should have had to make that proper decision,” Edwards pointed out.
CPED's Director, Joshua Cummings, assured the commissioners that Thurston County's legal counsel has been involved in these reviews from the outset, and the prosecuting attorney's office has thoroughly reviewed all the information.
The decisions by the commissioners will be incorporated as the county continues refining its updated Shoreline Master Program for eventual approval by the State Department of Ecology.
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