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11/15/2007: "Storm Water Meeting"

The newly formed County Council Sub-Committee held their first meeting in Friday Harbor on Veteran’s day, and the topic was how, and to what degree, should the County fund a stormwater ordinance. They will hold their second meeting at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 17 at the Senior Center on Orcas.

The sub-committee was formed after the resounding rejection by the voters of the previous funding ordinance. The committee will come back to the full council with ideas and -they hope- recommendations, for a new ordinance that will address the concerns of the voters.

At the first meeting the committee, county staff, and some members of the public, began the discussion with a review of preliminary goals, issues, and questions, with the aim of “establishing a work plan” to come up with a workable ordinance. In the following discussion the committee floated ideas ranging from Gene Knapp’s comment that “we just do a brand new ordinance”. to Howard Rosenfeld’s observation that “we could have a sunset date of one year, and then look at the problem at that time”; to a general discussion of “flat fees” and island specific funding that would be approved by the voters on their island.



Some of the issues that came up for general discussion, and there were many, ranged from Committee Chairman Peterson’s observation that “vacant parcels in problem areas were given a free ride”, to Councilman Rosenfeld’s concern that the “ Administrative Overhead” has been mentioned as being 27.5%”,and “that seems excessive” he said. Rosenfeld also said he would like to see some incentives, and suggested there be one to preserve forest land.

Jon Shannon told the committee that it is illegal for a road ditch to “convey” (i.e. carry) storm water that comes from, or is altered by, development, and that county ditches cannot convey additional water. Shannon said that road ditches in the county either need to be enlarged to carry the additional water from development, or that the development must retain the storm water, then meter it into the roadside ditches at a rate that will not cause overloading.

He pointed out that while the county now requires all new development to address the need to control the discharge of stormwater off of private property, there is still existing development that is not controlled.

A number of questions were raised as to what is the problem that the stormwater ordinance is attempting to solve. If Public Works has been maintaining the ditches to carry the existing occurring stormwater, and if all new development is required to meet county requirements to not create new impacts of stormwater runoff, what then, exactly, is the need for additional revenue?

Pauli Gavora said that when “you do a permit for a project, even a small project, you are required to address everything, including your driveway, so theoretically the stormwater problem has been solved (for new construction), so I don’t understand if this is just a revenue generating thing, or are we worried about stormwater?”

Gordy Petersen told the committee that he believed the first step is to define the problem, because, he said, one of the reasons the ordinance was rejected is the public perception that “this is all about raising money for a problem that exists in Eastsound, where several million dollars out of this budget is going”. Petersen agreed with Gavora that people have paid to solve their own problems, but then when forced to pay for Eastsound, they “think that is unfair”.

Mr. Petersen said that Eastsound should be encouraged to form their own Utility District to pay for development in Eastsound. Chairman Rich Peterson said the basis of the problem is making sure of what we are trying to accomplish..” at which point Mr. Petersen interjected “Where is the money going to go”? Councilman Knapp said that he “seconded that part of Gordy’s comment,, and that it is important to clearly define “what the problem is”.

Lori Petersen said that if the rational is that “we are all in this together, than why don’t we pay for Friday Harbor’s stormwater too?” There was discussion that UGAs (Urban Growth Areas) like Eastsound and Lopez Village could pay their own way, just as Friday Harbor does.

Members of the citizens committee that made funding recommendations to the full council will be invited to the Saturday meeting on Orcas; and the meeting will once again be open to the public. Unlike some past council work sessions, Chairman Peterson has allowed active and equal citizen participation, and has encouraged the public to attend, ask questions, and make suggestions.