Tuesday, Feb 9 2010 - The San Juan County Council will hear from a Department of Ecology (DOE) wetlands specialist at their Tuesday meeting to get the DOE’s view of what’s popularly known as the “tailored approach” to establishing land use buffers to protect wetlands.

This will be the second meeting in a row in which the Council has focused on some of the nuts and bolts issues involved in the state-mandated updating of County Code protecting “Critical Areas.” Those are defined as areas that are vital to the environment and quality of life in the County: They include critical aquifer recharge areas, fish and wildlife conservation areas, geologically hazardous areas, wetlands and frequently flooded areas. Of those five “Critical Areas,” only work on the critical aquifer recharge has been completed.

The most contentious portions of the ordinance deal with defining “reasonable use” of privately owned land which includes or adjoins sensitive areas, regulations governing non-conforming structures (structures built legally under existing codes, but which would not be allowed under the new code), and the mandatory distance that structures must be set back from wetlands and what activities to permit in that buffer.

Many counties have adopted fixed “one size fits all” buffers, however developers and property rights groups here have protested that requiring significant setbacks would be both costly and, they believe, not environmentally effective.

At its January 26 meeting, the Council spoke via teleconference with Paul R. Adamus of the Oregon State University College of Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sciences, who headed up the evaluation of scientific research which resulted in Island County’s securing state approval for its “tailored approach” to establishing buffers and being upheld at a hearings board challenge.

After its discussion with Adamus, the Council agreed by consensus that it would not move ahead with approval for the uplands portion of the critical areas ordinance that was recommended by a citizens committee appointed by the Council and approved by the Planning Commission. Instead it will hold its own workshops on the three “hot button” issues and take a hand in the review of the research being used to formulate amendments to the ordinance.

County Prosecuting Attorney Randall Gaylord advised the Council that one of the first steps it should take as it moves forward is to adopt a resolution identifying the research it feels is valid and pertinent to San Juan County. The Council has asked the County staff to establish how best to do that – and indicated that Dr. Adamus appears to be a well qualified candidate to consult in the process.

The Council’s goal is to finish the CAO update during 2010, five years after the original deadline, which was then extended through 2006. The updating process was begun in 2003 and County Administrator Pete Rose warned that the County could be vulnerable to legal challenges if it delays further.

Noting the GMA’s requirement that the Critical Areas Ordinance be updated every seven years, Rose observed, “We are now closer to the next update than we are from the required update.”
The presentation by DOE representative Eric Stockdale is on the Council’s agenda for 1:30 pm on Tuesday, February 9.