06/03/2008: "Council To Review Current Stormwater Requirements"

Responding to a flood of complaints on application procedures and requirements to obtain stormwater compliance to obtain a building permit, the County Council has agree to take a look at the existing ordinance and the permit procedures and policies.

Councilman Rich Peterson chairs a council sub-committee that is developing a new ordinance to replace the one voted down last year, and at the council meeting on Monday he informed Community Development and Planning Director Ron Hendrickson the committee had expressed a “strong interest in getting a report on the process that people go though right now on new development projects for their stormwater requirements.”

Peterson expressed his concern that there was nothing showing up on the future agendas that indicated the requested report was forthcoming. He told the council they needed to “get the whole issue of regulations dealt with before we get serious about reintroducing an ordinance” on stormwater.

Peterson said that “if we go out on any kind of a public tour (with a new ordinance) it is going to be doomed given the collective perspective out there.” The council members have received a number of complaints on what the public feel are confusing and overly strict and costly requirements for designing and installing stormwater systems for homes.

Bob Myhr said the council needs to “keep moving ahead on the ordinance anyway” and Chair Rosenfeld assured Myhr “we are doing that…were just not going public with it.”

Peterson agreed they needed to continue work on an ordinance, but that in terms of presenting an ordinance for public input, it would be “a flawed strategy” if the council does not deal with the ongoing problem with the demands of the stormwater regulations for single family construction.

Councilman Gene Knapp is a member of the stormwater subcommittee, and said “stormwater” has become a buzz word that “make you immediately hate everything in connection with it.” Knapp was responding to the anger and criticism that had been expressed at a recent Orcas meeting of the San Juan Initiative, in which Knapp said that even people who do not normally complain, were complaining about what they had to go through to comply with strormwater regulations.

Knapp handed out copies of some of the application materials given to applicants, so the council would have an understanding of what the public receives. Director Ron Hendrickson said his staff had looked at the fee structure, but were unable to reach agreement, but they had not looked at the regulations, or the procedures, that was the topic of the council discussion.

Knapp responded that the ordinance is the issue, and that “It needs…No ambiguity, it needs to be re-examined; at a bare minimum.” The council expects to receive a report within the next week or two.