On October 13th, the Department of Ecology (DOE) announced the recipients of $6.3 million in legislatively approved grants to 70 cities and counties in the Puget Sound region to help modernize their existing shoreline policies and development regulations, also called “shoreline master programs” or SMPs. The City of Bainbridge Island received a $200K grant.
To some, this is viewed as a way for the Legislature to fund the mandated SMP updates, since each city and county must go through the process. Others see it as an expensive way to appear to support the local control outlined in the Shoreline Management Act, while substituting direct control by the DOE.
Why do they say this? Property owners in Jefferson and San Juan Counties report that DOE has been providing detailed drafts of their preferred SMP updates and making it clear that they won’t accept any substantive changes. Whatever the reasons, the check is in the mail and the game is afoot.
The scope of work anticipated by DOE is described in the following document.
A rough timeline for the SMP Update process here on Bainbridge Island is as follows:
- 2009 – Phase 1 & 2
2009-2010 – Phase 3
2010-2011 – Phase 4
By 12/1/2011 – Phase 5
2012 – Phase 6
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