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10/29/2009: "County Will Need Another $450+/- To Update Shoreline Regulations"

While presenting a routine update to the County Council last Tuesday on Long Range Planning Tasks, Senior Planner Shireene Hale dropped a half-million dollar bomb on the county budget

When the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) offered $400 thousand to the County to - key word here is: “offset,” the costs of updating the County SMP (Shoreline Master Plan), there was concern expressed about possible strings attached; but in the end the County took the money.

At the Tuesday meeting, while addressing the items to be completed in the SMA, Hale noted the true costs to update the plan, as required by DOE to obtain their approval, would end up costing the county closer to a million dollars, so the County will need to come up with at least another $450K.

Momentary lost for words from the council members.


The Council quickly moved from wondering how this could be, to how could it be DOE did not grant the money necessary to complete the state requirements -and to complete them in a way that DOE would approve.

Councilman Richard Fralick thanked Hale for letting them know now, as opposed to later, then asked how did DOE come up with the $400K they had offered the County in the first place? Hale responded she did not know, but that SJC was not alone in needing more money.

Councilman Bob Myhr asked if the Council should ask someone from DOE to come to the council and explain why SJC is not getting more money, given that we have nothing but shoreline. He added the County needs to take a long look at where they are allocating County funds.

One place money is going is hiring consultants to run meetings. The November CAO Field Trips will be run by (Jim) Kramer Consulting, at an hourly rate of $180.00 and hour, plus expenses. (Kramer was the person who convinced the council to contract with the San Juan Initiative to review all of the land use codes and present a report to the council on their findings and recommendations.)

Hale said that given the staff cuts in the planning department, it was not possible to do all of the work in house that is required; and the use of consultants is more cost effective for some of the updating work that needs to be done.

County Administrator Pete Rose said “We need to do a little more fact finding on the level of funding required for the SMP re-write.

Councilman Fralick went another direction and asked that staff report back on what the minimum requirements are to complete an updating of the SMP.