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01/17/2008: "One Word Change & The Planning Process Changes"

When a rule or a law becomes a speed bump to attempts to drive though a change in the regulations that enforce the Comprehensive Plan, one thing that can be done is to slow down and follow the law, or one can attempt to change the law.

On January the 18th the Planning Commission will discuss a proposed amendment (see agenda below) to the UDC that will allow changes to existing land use regulations to occur faster than are now allowed. If one likes a proposed change, that could be a good thing, but for those who do not like a proposal, it may be a bad thing.

What is driving this proposed change is the desire of the CD&P (Community Development & Planning Department) to avoid the existing yearly process they are required to follow (called “the docket”), and allow the Council to make changes in land use law more quickly.

The Planning Commission is being asked by the County Council to recommend the Council remove, or retain -among other things- the phrase “this code” from the UDC (Unified Development Code). What that will do is remove a requirement that the UDC “may not be considered more frequently than once per year.”




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Doctor Chris Clarke and members of the Griffin Bay Preservation Committee are an environmental group that was founded to protect San Island’s Griffin Bay. Clarke and his committee believe the Council proposal to the PC is at least partially directly related to a Public Works attempt to build a barge landing site in an area not zoned for it.

Clarke is concerned about a proposal that will change the current regulations which state a “change must be identified in the beginning of the year (by March sometime), and then not enacted until fall; which gives ample time for study and comment.” He added that “the County is trying to remove those restrictions, and ‘staff’ is recommending approval.”

Clarke recalled that “the County tried to do this regarding barging. Over one holiday season the County drafted a horrible rewrite of all the UDC barging codes that basically would have allowed it anywhere and any time, but added lots of impractical restrictions on the operators. It then tried to enact the changes in early Jan and was frustrated by the current restrictions. After more careful scrutiny the change was dropped because it was so badly flawed.”

The County Council wants to avoid the normal yearly public process of making changes to the UDC (Unified Development Code), and by extension the SMP (Shoreline Master Program), in the existing orderly and prescribed way, by changing the ordinance so that they may make changes, well, pretty much whenever they feel the need to.

Problem is, the speed bump was put there for a reason, and removing it may allow changes to take place that could benefited from a leisurely pace that allows a full and unhurried view of the existing regulatory landscape that could be altered by a change.

CD&P say that they are behind in reviewing the current backlog of proposed changes from the public that have been piling up, and now, after years of delay and lack of action, they want to quickly make as least a few changes that CD&P are proposing, without going through the yearly process.


SAN JUAN COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION AGENDA
FRIDAY, January 18, 2008
County Council hearing room, 350 Court Street, Friday Harbor, San Juan Island