Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project

from the Project’s website:

The Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project is a large-scale initiative that affords a unique opportunity to tackle some of the foremost habitat restoration needs in Washington State’s Puget Sound basin.

Nearshore Project goals are to identify significant ecosystem problems, evaluate potential solutions, and restore and preserve critical nearshore habitat.

We represent a partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), state, local, and federal government organizations, tribes, industries, and environmental organizations….

SMP update to be pushed back at least a year.

During this week’s Land Use Committee meeting, we learned that Kitsap County has signed an agreement with the Department of Ecology (DOE) to postpone its Shoreline Master Program (SMP) update for one year — from December 2011 to 2012.

We also learned that the Bainbridge Island Planning Director will be asking the council to approve a similar delay to facilitate coordination with the County and that DOE has said they would approve it with no effect on recently approved grant money.

Other sources tell us that a number of legislators plan to propose a two-year deferral of deadlines for SMP updates during coming legislative session. They say that the proposal has support from the Association of Washington Cities.

The current economic downturn and falling tax revenues make it particularly hard for cities and counties to cope with SMP updates at this time. An extension seems reasonable since it would take a bit of budgetary pressure off local jurisdictions.

It is unclear at this point is how such a delay might effect the Puget Sound Partnership’s plan to request a shoreline moratorium that would halt construction of bulkheads and docks in “sensitive areas” until new rules are approved. However, it would push back a predicted COBI moratorium, authorized in last year’s legislative session, to July 1, 2011.

Salmon are plentiful and healthy, so what problem are we’re trying to solve?

from a story by Christopher Dunagan in the Kitsap Sun…

Recent rains have encouraged the chum salmon to move upstream in many creeks across the Kitsap Peninsula. Observers say some of the chum they are spotting are much larger than any they have seen in years.

“The timing of these rains is just about perfect,” said Jon Oleyar, a biologist for the Suquamish Tribe who knows the East Kitsap streams like nobody else. “If you’re a salmon, you’re saying, ‘It’s about time we got some decent water.’”

Coho salmon, which normally arrive earlier than chum, were favored by rains in October, the biologist said, and their size has been remarkable.

“By far, these are the largest coho I have ever seen,” said Oleyar, who has conducted salmon-counting surveys for the tribe for the past 11 years.

Should our city collect a $20 car tab fee?

from Jola and Albert Greiner to the City Council

Contrary to Mr.Tripp’s request to ask you not to impose it, we are in favor of instituting a $20 car tab fee. The main reason is that the county may well impose such a fee before we can and then, predictably, keep most of the proceeds for use off-island. Thus we’ll be paying the fee and not getting our money back. Secondarily, that fee amounts to about 7 gallons of gasoline, a trivial amount. For goodness sake, let’s get some perspective here!

Mostly what I hear from folks is the cynical prediction that at some point in the future, Council or staff will figure out some way to weasel these funds away from road repair and into some other budget item. This is too easily done by reducing normal road repair funding by a like amount. This suspicion may well be the real reason behind citizen opposition. You might address this concern in some effective fashion.

As to raising the fees for building permits, we think further discouraging new endeavors and new residents by raising fees and entry barriers even more (they now both are ridiculously high) is contrary to the City’s best interests. To bring in the relatively small amount of money from increased fees versus much larger possible tax revenues from realty transfer fees and sales taxes on construction does not make economic sense.

County fights “one size fits all” rural zoning.

The following story is important for shoreline homeowners because “one size fits all” has been the land use planning mantra of planners, activist groups and the Department of Ecology. However, the Shoreline Management Act and the Growth Management Act call for custom-tailored approaches to fit local conditions.

by Rob Ollikainen, Peninsula Daily News

Clallam County (the northernmost county on the Olympic Peninsula) has won a key battle in its long war over zoning.

The Western Washington Growth Management Act Hearings Board on Tuesday found the county’s rural zoning is valid and compliant with the Growth Management Act. Moreover, the board found the county’s amended limited areas of more intensive rural development, or LAMRIDs, are compliant.

“My office successfully argued to the growth board that Seattle special interest group Futurewise’s and local group Dry Creek Coalition’s ‘one size fits all’ approach to rural zoning failed to acknowledge the unique, local circumstances in rural Clallam County and ignored this county’s right to control its own future,” Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said in a statement.

“This is an unprecedented win for private property owners in Washington state, where county after county in recent years has instead chosen to abandon the battlefield over rural lands and settle for one-dwelling-for-five-acres.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Treating rainwater as a beneficial resource.

by Jeff Kray at Marten Law Group

Washington and some other states have started to manage precipitation and stormwater runoff as a beneficial resource, rather than treating it as a waste stream.

There are many ramifications to be considered in utilizing precipitation as a water source, including impacts to groundwater, impacts to surface water to which such runoff may be tributary, health concerns associated with a private water source, and regulatory compliance.

Election Results

The very latest election returns can be found on the county auditor’s website.