If you are concerned about dramatic new shoreline regulations that have emerged in the Shoreline Master Program update scheduled for completion in 2012, please consider joining our board.
Bainbridge Shoreline Homeowners was formed in July 2008 to educate ourselves and our neighbors about the pending approval of a Critical Areas Ordinance that would have affected all or most of us on the shoreline. Due to a Supreme Court Decision, the CAO was not approved and any new regulations for the shoreline were delayed until the island’s Shoreline Master Program (SMP) update, then scheduled for December 2011.
It’s been three and a half years. The SMP update deadline has been delayed until the end of this year, but it is coming inexorably. Bainbridge Shoreline Homeowners has hosted forums on law and science. We hosted last year’s very first Town Hall for City Council candidates.
We have published 648 articles on this blog. We have polled our neighbors about important issues and identified Six BIG Problems with the SMP updates adopted in other communities and proposed for Bainbridge Island.
But wait, there’s more…
We nominated members of our board to represent all shoreline homeowners as members of the Citizen Work Groups involved in the early stages of drafting the new SMP. When the meetings were over and it was clear that we had little if any impact on the process, we filed a minority report.
We gathered almost 1,000 signatures on a petition that asked the Planning Commission and City Council to follow state law when updating our SMP.
Now that the Planning Commission is nearing the end of its revisions of the initial draft, we are happy with some of their decisions and disappointed with others. This Spring, the City Council will begin their discussion of the SMP Update.
We have retained the services of an established land use consulting firm to help us identify problems with the document they will be given at the start of their deliberations and provide alternative language from other cities and counties that has already been approved by the Department of Ecology, since they have the final say.
Our board of directors has changed little in the past three and a half years. However, it’s time for a few additions and changes. We need your help. If you would consider joining our board, please submit the following information. We’ll contact you to set up a time for conversation.
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