| Summary of Comprehensive Plan Update Hearing | |
| Roz Glasser is a member of the Guemes Island Planning Advisory Committee For further information contact Roz at (360) 588-0160 or rozglasser@juno.com.
See also Roz's article on the Comprehensive Plan Update. See County Map Summary Table [20k PDF] for a summary of all County initiated changes. Description of LAMIRDs [20k PDF] Islanders may write to the County Planning Commission and County Commissioners, turn out at hearings, and otherwise comment on this rezone: Skagit County Comprehensive Plan Information Planning Commission Hearing Schedule:
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Skagit
County Comprehensive Plan The March 21 Planning Commission hearing concerned proposed changes in the Skagit County Comprehensive Plan and development regulations. It drew residents from around the county, filling the County Commissioner Chambers to gills and spilling over into the lobby. This is a summary of the issues discussed at the hearing that affect Guemes Island. Many people spoke of how the updates would affect their ability to further subdivide their land. But many others, like Ellen Grey of Futurewise talked about a larger view of the future of Skagit County. She said that we can expect some 50,000 new residents here, or about 2 more Mt. Vernons, in the next 20 years. To protect the vast rural character and incredible resources of the county, she said the Comprehensive Plan needs to ensure that 80% of this growth goes to cities and 20% goes to rural areas, as the Growth Management Act (GMA) requires. Up to now though, rural development in the county is far and away exceeding it share. One of the tools that is supposed to allow development while saving rural open space is the CaRD program. CaRD encourages clustering of houses by giving developers bonus densities. But the open space created actually becomes a land reserve for future development, so in the long term it does not protect open space. One speaker asked that bonus densities not be given for CaRD developments and another called for permanent protection of open space created by these developments. Steve Orsini spoke of the need for the Health Department to analyze the impact of new shoreline wells on existing nearby wells. He contended that by approving new wells that draw down other wells, the County is effectively taking a water right, or private property, from landowners without compensation. Other speakers focused on the misapplication of LAMIRDs, or Limited areas of More Intense Rural Development. The Growth Management Act set up LAMIRDs to recognize pockets of dense development that were in place in rural areas in 1990, when the GMA went into effect. LAMIRDs are assigned the Rural Intermediate Zone (RI) which allows 1 home per 2.5 acres, the highest density rural zone. Tom Glade of Evergreen Islands said that the possibility of County using LAMIRDs to justify the RI zone throughout South Fidalgo Island is inappropriate since much of this area was undeveloped in 1990. He added that by increasing densities there, its rural character would be eliminated and it could trigger the need for city sewer and water which would be cost prohibitive under the RI densities. This would be wholly inconsistent with the GMA. Higher (urban) densities would then be needed to pay for these service expansions, thereby fully eliminating the “rural’ from these Rural areas. A similar situation occurs on Guemes Island where the County is justifying the zoning of a 280 acre area as RI based on the LAMIRD. I spoke of the missapplication of the LAMIRD to the area north of Holiday Hideaway that flanks either side of Square Harbor Rd (case CPA05-21). I noted that this site was undeveloped in 1990 and is still a substantially undeveloped forest. In addition to the lack of development there, it is a poor choice for intensive construction since it has little water (because it is largely underlain by rock) and it contains a number of critical areas, including several eagle nest sites, wetlands, a stream, and steep and unstable slopes. The fact that it is also platted into 5 and 10 acre lots makes it a logical candidate for the Rural Reserve zone which limits development to1 home per 10 acres. I said that zoning this area RI would be an unfortunate precedent for the island and elsewhere in the county. If the RI zone could be justified there, it could also be justified across much of the interior of the island that is adjacent to the RI zone and platted in 5 and 10 acre parcels. The County will hold at least one more public hearing on April 4 and possibly another one on April 6. Islanders
are encouraged to review the updates
to the
- Roz Glasser |
