Skagit County Planning Commission Work Session: Shoreline Master Program Update April 15, 2014 Commissioners: Annie Lohman, Chair Josh Axthelm, Vice Chair (absent) Kevin Meenaghan Robert Temples Keith Greenwood Matt Mahaffie Jason Easton Tammy Candler Dave Hughes (absent) Staff: Dale Pernula, Planning Director Betsy Stevenson, Senior Planner Ryan Walters, Civil Deputy Attorney Public Commenters: Carol Ehlers Connie Munsey Aquaculture Subcommittee: Kevin Bright Tim Hyatt Bill Dewey Chair Annie Lohman: (gavel) I call to order this work session of the Skagit County Planning Commission. It is April 15, 2014. It’s 6 p.m. We’re still – we’re missing a couple Commissioners – Commissioner Greenwood and Commissioner Axthelm. This is a work session where we’re going to be working on the Shoreline Master Program, so we’ll open it up for a call for order and agenda review. Are there any changes to the agenda? (silence) Chair Lohman: Okay, seeing none, we’ll move on to Public Remarks. I’d like to remind the public that this is not a formal testimony. This is basically a courtesy of the Planning Commission. And we’re going to give you up to three minutes, so if you could say your name and where you live. So come on up. Carol Ehlers: I’m Carol Ehlers. I live on west Fidalgo Island on the shore of – above the shore of these areas, and I have two comments. The first one: You talk about wind in this document. You do not talk about waves and the action of the sea. And last night the wind was pretty powerful coming in from the Pacific down the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and it sure was beating against the shore. And it illustrates why those of us on the west side of Fidalgo do not have docks, do not have boats moored where it’s sensitive, don’t have staircases because they would Skagit County Planning Commission Work Session: Shoreline Master Program Update April 15, 2014 be beaten up in storms like that one. And so we decided back in 1950 with the establishment of the community out there that we wouldn’t do it. And as Matt has said frequently, one ought to have recognition for people who do what they’re supposed to, which is what we did. Now I have given all of you a section from the Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan, the County document that was done in – that I’ve commented on before – done in reaction to Congress’s requirement that everyone identify your hazards. This is the section on land movement. Anyone listening can go find it on the Internet at the County website under Emergency Management. I suggest that you look at the list of where the land’s movement has been on page 49 and 50, and then look carefully at page 51 as to what it is that causes these kinds of movements other than simple Mother Nature, such as happened at Oso. Sometimes the land is perfectly capable – moraines, geomorphological-vulnerable land is perfectly capable of sliding on its own, given enough rain. And Skagit County talks about the future of climate change but they have no record of how the climate has changed since 1900 when we got 12-inch rains in Anacortes in the winter of the year, and then it got to the point by the 1950s where there was 16 inches in the whole year. Then back in 1990 – and you’ll see a lot of dates in here for 1990 – in November 1990, my rain gauge out in the west had 10 inches of rain in November, in addition to whatever else happened. The water started in the center of the island, slid down through the unmanaged road ditches, and naturally came down onto the shorelines. And that’s the other point I wish to make. This law that you’re dealing with deals with the last 200 feet, but the last 200 feet cannot control the previous 2 or 3 miles and it doesn’t do any good to expect the people who are there to do so. So there has to be some way in your code and in the process of deciding things that you look to see whether something has a history. You look at the topography. You always look at the topographic map. You look at every bit of evidence there is and there’s tons of it. Now that’ll mean the County has to dig it up – Kevin Meenaghan: That’s three minutes Ms. Ehlers: – but there’s plenty of evidence and the citizens know how to use it to attack the County if they have to. Much better not to. Chair Lohman: Thank you, Carol. Anybody else? Come on up. Connie Munsey: Good evening, everybody. Connie Munsey from Anacortes. After spending most of the afternoon hearing if the County Commissioners – if the Envision Skagit 2060 people justify their existence, I want to share with you what I intended to do last month but we were caught at a very contentious PUD meeting and we got here after public comment was over. But I don’t know if I have enough copies, but I would like everybody to have one. This is – getting into this I found out that this little book, which is the Constitution and the Declaration, has turned into a ginormous Godzilla of a government and I wanted to find out how Skagit County was really supposed to be. And it wasn’t easy to find but there is a Skagit County org chart which I did hand out at last month’s SCOG meeting, which was the day after your meeting, and the three Commissioners were there, a whole lot of other folks, members of SCOG. They had never seen this. It’s not easy to find. If you Google “County organization chart of Skagit County,” the first thing that comes up is this, which I didn’t make copies of, and this is the organization chart for the Planning Department. It has about seven sections less than the entire United States Constitution, so we have created a monster here. I just wanted you all to know. You represent us, the citizens, as you are citizens, and note: We are at the top of this – not the Commissioners, not the County Administrator, not the Planning Department, not even Rich Weyrich. So thank you for representing us and we appreciate it when you hear our concerns about things like this – this Shoreline Management Plan. I have one question. Pierce County, Page 2 of 76 Skagit County Planning Commission Work Session: Shoreline Master Program Update April 15, 2014 which has probably got more political clout than we do, has opted out of this thing and I’m wondering is the reason they were able to opt out because they did not accept grant money to fund a County employee. I just need to know how this works, but that must be the thing because I’m under the impression here we can’t opt out of it and it must be because we took something, therefore we have to follow this back. It was very discomforting to me last month when I heard Betsy concerned about what Department of Ecology accept and what they wouldn’t accept. I’m sorry. We’re the citizens. We’re at the top here. It’s what’s acceptable to us. Thank you. Chair Lohman: Anybody else wish to make public remarks? (silence) Chair Lohman: Okay, so moving on we’ll go right into the work session for the Shoreline Master Program. I’ll turn it over to you, Betsy. But before – I’d like at some point before we get too far started is to have everybody introduce themselves because we have some members of the Aquaculture Advisory Committee. Do you want to do that first? Betsy Stevenson: Sure. This is the subcommittee of the Shoreline Advisory Committee who worked on the Aquaculture section – has given up an awful lot of all their time to make this what it is, so with due respect to the Planning Commission, I hope that you will show them the respect that they have in terms of the time involved that we have spent on this. And I’m not going to say we all agree to everything that’s in there or how it’s done now, but they’re here to help in any way that they can, I’m sure, and answer questions and maybe have some things that they want to say, because they may not be that happy with it either. Kevin Bright – you guys, if you want to give your own little spiel that would be fine with me. Kevin Bright: I’m Kevin Bright. I’m the Environmental Permit Coordinator with American Gold Seafoods. We operate the net pens here in Skagit County. We’ve been doing that for about thirty years now. I’ve been involved with them for over twenty years. Got a marine biology degree and I’m just really interested in aquaculture and raising food and to growing fish. I’m really interested in how the Shoreline Master Program affects our operation, and I welcome questions, if there are any, from the Commission. Tim Hyatt: I’m Tim Hyatt. I’m with the Skagit River System Cooperative. We’re a tribal natural resources organization representing the Swinomish and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian tribes. And we – as a matter of policy – we strongly support an aquaculture – a vibrant aquaculture industry – in Skagit County.