Aerial Reconnaissance

Apparently the County Council has agreed to pay a company something north of $100,000 to take detailed reconnaissance aerial photographs of the homes and land in San Juan County. These photo’s will include photo’s of your home from all sides, not just overhead.

The Council motion that put this into play began with a Stan Mathews and Bob Jean request. The Council majority agreed to do the aerial reconnaissance if the County Fire Chiefs Association would find it useful voted to help pay for it. This did not happen, as San Juan and Orcas Fire Districts declined.

Stan and Bob decided the Council motion had wiggle room. They went forward and signed the County up. The always decisive Council has let the Stan and Bob picture show go forward absent an agreement that the Fire Chiefs would support it.

For the record, newly re-elected Councilman Bob Jarman and Council member Mark Florenza both voted no,

The other two re-elected Council members, Rick Hughes and Jamie Stevens, approved this new tool for the County to monitor what county citizens might be up to. Outgoing Council members Rich Peterson and Patty Miller voted approval as well, but Councilmember Rich Peterson had assumed it would not go forward unless all the fire chiefs supported it.

Now some are saying, “What’s the big deal with aerial reconnaissance unless you have something on your property to hide from the County’s enforcement folks or whom ever else buys into the program?”

It is amazing how shallow the thinking is on this. Most people, especially in rural San Juan County, consider their privacy to be important. That includes not having the County, or who ever pays money into the program, go poking around everyone’s back yard to see what they can see.

For most folks personal privacy has nothing to do with whether you have done something the County or someone might question on your property. It is about preserving a fundamental right to be left alone; to have at least one bit of sanctuary and security in an increasingly complex and confrontational world.

Think of this as one step closer to the County coming into your property and checking out it out for whatever: “We are the government. We are in charge. We are here to direct your life whether you like it or not.”

I hope the public remembers how quickly the Council could find the unbudgeted $100,000 plus for this venture, (not to mention this goes on every three years for a nine year contract) when they claim to be operating on a shoestring. Remember, the Council will be back, hat in hand, asking for another special tax levy in a year or two!

One suggestion. If you have a low flying plane crisscrossing over your house, run out and give it the one finger salute. That is about the only satisfaction you are going to get in this latest County folly.

John B Evans: Columnist for The Island Guardian, Farmer and nurseryman in Doe Bay, County Commissioner for 12 years, Executive Director of SJC Builders Association, and one of the founding members of Citizens For Responsible Government, a not-for-profit & a non-partisan corporation

Critical Areas Ordinance Delay

San Juan County is legally required to follow the planning rules of the Washington State Growth Management Act. This includes a requirement to periodically review, and if necessary, update the elements of our County Comprehensive Plan.

The County has instead spent 6 years and hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars, (like the infamous Alaska “bridge to nowhere”) writing a brand new Critical Areas Ordinance.

As a result the new ordinance is so complex, and has so many unanswered questions about how it can be implemented, that no one ..... the County staff, the planner who wrote it, the Council or the public know what the thing really says, or how to apply when evaluation development permits.

The original State GMA requirement was not that complicated. The job was to review the existing ordinance. in the existing Comprehensive Plan, and see if it was adequately protecting critical areas.

The Council and staff decided the State requirement to consider Best Available Science (BAS) when drafting rules for protecting critical areas really meant that BAS should be blindly applied to all aspects of the new ordinance.

The problem with the science reports the County choose to adopt as BAS is that the science invariably selected indicates the only way to totally protect anything is to exclude any human interface with whatever you want to protect, by the use of the precautionary principle , which was interpreted to me that harm might happen if humans are allowed near the “natural” environment.

The Council and staff also decided that, by their standards, virtually all the landscape of the islands was, either as a critical area, or that extensive buffers are necessary to protect what the decided -based on the BAS- was critical.

As a result many of our existing homes and yards, farms, rural lands, the shorelines and much of the undeveloped property became either a nonconforming existing use or could not be developed at all.

if the premise for an action is faulty in the beginning, no amount of writing, policy changes and twists and turn is going to make it right. In construction terms, if the foundation of the building is faulty it really doesn’t matter what you build on top of that foundation; it isn’t going to work!

The obvious answer is to do what should have been done in the beginning; do an assessment of the conditions of the natural environment that exists in the islands, and if there are clearly identified areas where the existing ordinance is failing to protect some particular critical area, draft a fix.

In the drafting of that fix, once againconsiderr, but don’t just blanket apply, best available science. With that, the State requirement is met, and more important we will be able to move forward with a healthy natural environment that is shared by people, our homes and farms and wild things.

This simple answer is not likely to happen.

Elected officials and bureaucrats really hate to admit they screwed up, especially a screw up this big. Lovel Pratt and Jamie Stephens both served on the prior Council that guided this train wreck. They both hope to get elected to continue to send the County down the same path we have been on .... further off into the weeds. Lisa Byers seems to think the current CAO is OK.

The likely outcome if these 3 folks are elected to the new 3-member Council, they will find a bigger hammer and keep pounding their square CAO peg into the round hole that otherwise logical community planning and the State rules actually require.

The public can hope that with the lawsuits by CAPR and appeals to the Growth Hearing Board by the Friends, CSA, the Builders Association and Bill Wright, will cause either the Growth Management Hearings Board or the Superior Court judge to give the citizens of San Juan County the hammer they need to compel the County officials and staff to finally do it right.

None of this had to happen. What a waste of time and money.

Out Of Balance

I guess it is to be expected that some folks are getting pretty up tight. The County’s CAP (Critical Areas Ordinance) is very controversial. There are multiple appeals of the CAO Ordinance to the Growth Hearings Board.

The primary elections being conducted are serious for the public and a general election is to follow.

A law suit to undo the recently passed Charter revisions headed for arguments in court. “Council Community Conversations” are being conducted, four on each of the ferry islands. Classes are being held by CD&P (Community Development & Planning) this month on what the CAO actually says. And the update on the Shoreline regulations is looming this summer.

No doubt I have missed one or two big ticket issues. Everyone who has a concern about any of these issues ..... or any interest in repairing our local governance ..... is a bit on edge.

For me it goes back to asking the simple question. What is so seriously wrong with our island communities that we need to be putting ourselves through all this angst?

To the point; no one has ever actually shown what is wrong with our current environmental and land use and development regulations. Our marine waters are classified as pristine. We have been and continue to set extensive land areas aside as natural with no development allowed through the Land Bank and Preservation Trust. Our rural pattern of development is giving nature’s animals lots of elbow room to do their thing. The list of things we have done and are doing right is extensive.

From my perspective, what we -County government and elected officials- are not spending enough time or energy on planning efforts of how to better meet the needs of the people who live here. Instead we are spending an inordinate amount of time, effort and money on calculating buffer widths for a wetland. The County’s wetlands already rated 8 on a scale of 10 .... far better than most places in Western Washington .... and all accomplished under the existing regulations. It would be silly if it were not such a boondoggle and misapplication of resources.

The endangered species in the islands are our middle class working families, local businesses and their owners and employees who are hanging on by their finger tips ... if at all, or citizens who try to do the right thing and run into onerous fees for permits that are not that different from what a bookie might be changing for a loan, and rules so complex the County is conducting classes -even for the staff- on how to make sense of them.

I suggest we all take a deep breath, choose candidates in this election who can put our community back on a rational track to sensible government and tone down the partisan electioneering. It is my sense that candidates who think more government is the answer are not themselves the answer.

If we elect reasonable people to office who are more citizen oriented and if the Friends of the San Juans with their hired muscle were to close up shop and go out of business, there would be no need for Commons Sense Alliance or Citizens Alliance for Property Rights, or the law suits, or the appeals to the Growth Hearings Board.

In other words, how much better it could be if our elected officials, the County’s employees, and our citizens could concentrate on how to provide an opportunity to achieve a better quality of life for the children, the families and the retired citizens in the islands.

It is a very poor outcome when we spend so much unnecessary time and money “protecting” the scenic and natural environment that is already protected and our pride, when the problems on the human side of the ledger are so much greater, and far more critical.

The Carnac Permit System; Many Questions, Few Answers

Sometimes dissimilar things are more alike then we imagined. So it is with the similarities between the federal government’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, (generally called Obama Care) and the County’s new Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO).

In both cases no one knows for sure what the regulations say.
In the case of the County’s Critical Areas Ordinance, the County is now scheduling two all-day workshops for architects, designers contractors and builders to try to explain the new CAO to building professionals. To date there is no instruction planed for suffering property owners trying to navigate the Ordinance.

I have a mental image of future owner/applicants facing a stressed and befuddled County staff permit person in a turban ...... a reincarnation of the famous Late Night with Johnny Carson character Carnac, complete with a nonsensical answer to a permit request presented in a sealed envelope.

When an Ordinance is written that is so complicated that permit staff or building professionals need extensive classes to figure out what it might be intended to say, something is very wrong.

In both cases the actual costs of the regulations are unknown.
No economic impact analysis was done by the County on what the costs will be to property owners to get the required approvals under the Ordinance. Further, there is no estimate on the effects on property values for the homes that have not been called non-conforming but will now be treated as non- conforming if the owner applies for a permit. Likewise, there is no cost estimate for the expected cancellation of future projects due to costs associated with complying with the Ordinance.

In both cases, Obama Care and the Critical Areas Ordinance, were passed in a hurry at the last minute.
The Critical Areas Ordinance would have benefited from a more careful analysis of what the Ordinance was going to require, not only from the property owner, but also from county staff.

In both cases, the proponents of the new regulations are telling the public not to worry.
The past Council and the staff planner who wrote the Ordinance claim any problems with the CAO will be ironed out as we go along.

So here we are today.
On the campaign trail, Lovel Pratt, a prime mover behind the Critical Areas Ordinance, is famously putting forward that her CAO Ordinance is a great compromise (NOT) and is fine, just misunderstood by the general public.

With any luck, the voters in the upcoming primary election will say “no thank you” to candidate Lovel Pratt, and choose one of the two San Juan Island Council candidates, Marc Forlenza or Bob Jarman. They are the non-partisan candidates -and were not part the prior Council that passed the CAO mess. New folks on the Council should be able to start correcting the Critical Areas Ordinance missteps.

It is unfortunate that it will take a new Council, the Growth Hearings Board and a gaggle of expensive attorneys to correct the CAO and put our Comprehensive Plan back on a sound footing.

“The Operation Was A Success But The Patient Died.”

For years, County citizens encouraged the County Council to take a more realistic approach to updating the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) of the Comprehensive Plan. The hope for a common sense approach came to an end late Monday afternoon when the Council passed their CAO ordinance; five votes in favor and one against.

It is fitting that the Council’s vote took place in a largely empty Council chamber. The citizens had finally gave up. Confused to the end, the Council was left voting on a marked-up strike-out version of the CAO and discussing if they could vote without a final “clean” document. They decided they could and did.

By the close of the hearing on Monday, the Council had made some cosmetic changes to the staff draft.

They decided that a homeowner’s already developed property within a CAO buffer would not be called a non-conforming use. In the fine print however, any changes within the existing developed area would have to comply with the new CAO rules; as though the proposed request for a permit use was within a non-conforming designation.

Compliance with the new “not non-conforming use designation that really is a non-conforming use for permitting purposes” will mean showing “no net loss” of functions and values of critical areas or wildlife habitat. Good luck with that one. Plan on spending lots of money on “experts” and their reports to prove a negative.

In discussing how to pay for implementing all the new rules, the Council reverted to the usual answer: the costs will be covered in a new updated fee schedule the County charges applicants. The County has been routinely raising fees for their “services.” Expect additional raises and new fees to come in the new year.

The Council never did a dry run on what the complete permit approval process would entail for a property owner. The permitting staff is not sure what it all means either. They were not consulted. The staff will have to, “make it up as they go along” and let the lawyers and courts decide. Good luck for the applicant on that one as well.

It was particularly telling that the Council only spent a bit over an hour on a cursory analysis of if or how the CAO would affect our current Comprehensive Plan; the plan that has worked very well for over a decade.

Based on the analysis Shireene Hale gave to the Council during this final meeting they decided the CAO would have no discernible affect on the existing Comprehensive Plan. Her report was not seen, let alone reviewed of commented on, by the Planning Commission or the general public, but the Council accepted it, and went along anyway.

There also was no analysis of how the CAO affects the 13 State GMA goals as required to be addressed under the Growth Management Act .

The Council’s notion that the CAO will not effect, or be in opposition to the goals of the SJC Comprehensive Plan’s Vision Statement, the Goals and Policies of the County’s existing GMA-approved Comprehensive Plan, or on the 13 goals (beyond a CAO) of any Comprehensive Plan approved under the State Growth Management Act, is beyond belief.

If this column sounds grumpy, it is because the County was not required to review the a CAO in this manner in the first place.

The simple fact is that the existing rules have been and continue to work as intended. The environment of the islands is healthy and would remain so without the changes. Minor changes, such as those made by the Town of Friday Harbor, would have satisfied the State update requirements.

So here we are, hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted, no real science as to what, if any, environmental problems exist in the islands, and an ordinance that will make home ownership ever more expensive for middle class working families while proving a full employment act for attorneys.

Good work Council.

The MRC Is Not Autonomous

I listened to last weeks Council meeting and the absolutely amazing bit of testimony (2:10.40 pm into the meeting)to the County Council from the MRC (San Juan County Marine Resources Committee). Somehow they have developed the notion that they are an agency independent of San Juan County!

The very first MRC was formed by the San Juan County Commissioners in the 90’s as a local volunteer organization that would exist, with some County financial and staff support, to work to protect the health of our local salt waters.

It was such a worthwhile idea that other counties also formed MRC’s and the Federal government added additional support for projects such as the initiative to remove lost fish nets from the Puget Sound waters.

The structure of the MRC was included in the original legislation and included scientists, commercial fisherman, recreational fisherman, boaters, and others who had experience and an understanding of what was going on in our marine waters and how to make things better for all the species that depend on the marine waters for their well being.

Somehow, over the years, the MRC has been allowed to evolve into an entity independent of County oversight (in their minds) and into yet another special interest advocacy group for a variety of interests including the Tribes, State agencies and environmental groups.

They have also become a “grant mill” securing funding from various agencies and groups for self designed projects that are independent of any County elected official review.

It is time for the County to pull the plug on this group and start over.

The original purpose of the Marine Resources Committee is still of great value. We need a group of dedicated individual volunteers who can bring to the public an understanding of how our marine environment is functioning. Questions such as how best to support the re-population of our deep water reef fish or how does the remarkable two to three day water exchange rushing through the San Juan Islands give us opportunities to support species recovery.

Programs to retrieve lost fishing nets that kill marine birds and lost crab pots are important. It is not hard to find ideas that will improve the marine environment.

There is much to do, but a group of “grant” motivated special interest folks who think they are somehow now independent of the very San Juan County government that created them is not the answer.

County Limits Who They Listen To

Over the last weeks, months and years individual citizens, property owners, Common Sense Alliance, CAPR, the Builders Association, farmers, realtors, scientists and others have participated in the County’s Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) Review process.

Their efforts have been sincere and constructive, offering ideas for protecting our environment consistent with our Comprehensive Plan and with the Growth Management Act. It appears that all these local citizens have largely wasted their time as only four information sources seem important to County staff.

When reporting to the Council Tuesday, August 28th It was so telling that planning coordinator Shireene Hale only referenced the outside comments of three groups: the Department of Ecology, the Friends of the San Juan's, and the politically active mainland environmental group Futurewise.

It was obvious to everyone -except maybe to the Council- that in the planner’s mind, these were the points of view had to be addressed.

There were no references to the extensive work submitted by CSA or CAPR, and of course none at all from the individual citizens of San Juan County.

How the Council could sit by and embrace this selective viewpoint is amazing. If the Council should ask why is that, I expect the staff response would be along the lines of: “Sooooo, we have considered everyone’s input, the attention to only those three organizations, and Dr Adamus comments, was inadvertent.”

I guess this will have to get sorted out, one way or the other, after the CAO is passed by the Council. It truly is unfortunate that valid science, policy suggestions and the basic concerns of property owners is currently being ignored.

A lot of hard work, serious thought, and constructive comments have gone into alternative solutions to what, from the beginning, has been the staff’s single track push. The County could have done “Soooo” much better.

More Rules Are On The Way.

The way we are headed, soon everyone will be in violation of something as our local County officials keep adding new rules regulating our daily lives.

Even the “write more rules” FRIENDS of the San Juan's can’t seem to keep up.

Under the heading of “what goes around comes around” FRIENDS of the San Juan’s Board member Vivien Burnett is now cross-ways with the County for her “illegal” guest house.

The irony is that she has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Friend’s “write more rules” and was very outspoken (Related video) about the permit compliance problems of Orcas farmer and restaurant owner, Charles Dalton.

Charles was confused about County permitting requirements, and ended up in the County’s CD&PD (Community Development and Planning Department) permit mix-master after complaints about his “development” from Vivien’s FRIENDS organization.

Meanwhile Vivien was sitting quietly on her own set of land use, density, guest house and building code violations. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, one can speculate she was as confused by the CD&PD rules and regulations as Charles was.

To add to the irony, it was the FRIENDS who appealed the County’s guest house rules (which were supported by 73% of residents on a ballot measure) to the Growth Hearings Board. The FRIENDS ultimately won in spite of the broad citizen support for the County’s then existing rules. It is the Friend’s restrictions that has Ms. Burnett and her “illegal” accessory structure wrapped-around-the-axle.

The guest house issue is old news. The new Critical Areas Ordinance initiative by the FRIENDS and their allies, (the Marine Resources Committee, the Puget Sound Partnership, the Indian Tribes, the Department of Ecology and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Futurewise etc.) is the all-out push for additional new strict regulations on our citizens. In the name of protecting the environment, they want to add additional layers upon layers to the existing restrictions.

According to these groups, people, homes and the activities of our citizens are incompatible with the far more important need to “protect” the environment. The County Council appears to agree.

Welcome to the brave new world of living in a tightly regulated community, where home owners are tenants, and the County is the landlord.

At the core of the sweeping new regulations are “CAO protection buffers” that will make much of the existing private land in the islands off limits to the folks who own it. Most property owners in the County will be subject to the buffer overlays, non-conforming use designations and ultimately subject to dealing with the same enforcement regime that Vivien is now dealing with.

The FRIENDS prevailed on the guest house issue. Their narrow viewpoint may well prevail on the current CAO regulations unless citizens speak up to the County Council.

The County planning staff and FRIENDS are advocating new rules -which some wit has called: “regulations on steroids”- which will leave most citizens, including FRIENDS members, in a precarious position of an uncertainty of daily life resulting from pages and pages of new restrictions.

This is a far cry from the basic rural life style in the San Juan Islands that most of us (for example, the 73% vote on the single guest house matter) supported.

All islanders support reasonable regulations to protect the environment. What is coming down the pike is far beyond reasonable. Maybe Ms. Burnett can suggest her FRIENDS Board be careful what they wish for.