By Isabelle Spohn
During recent years, the Methow Valley News has published numerous expressions of gratitude for the natural beauty surrounding us. But 2018 will be the most crucial year in decades in determining the future of land use in this county, and we are off to a very rocky start. The public is ill-informed of this problem.
Focusing upon more sensationalized local issues and the national emergencies has caused us to lose sight of planning that has kept natural beauty in this valley. Our county government has settled into a disturbing pattern: kicking the can down the road, then hurriedly approving inferior products that do not hold up in court nor to public scrutiny.
For example, our commissioners recently approved a new draft of the Shorelines Master Plan (SMP) for the Washington Department of Ecology over Commissioner Branch’s vote. Branch had repeatedly requested an analysis of the impacts of deleting the “Riverine Environment” from the SMP. He was assured that his questions would be answered during upcoming meetings. Instead, the other two commissioners decided they were out of time and approved the draft as written — without the requested analysis or a public hearing. An analysis has finally been done, but not by the county — showing that approximately 4,400 acres of high-functioning shoreline have lost protection with this change.
We are headed in the same direction regarding the county’s overarching 40-plus-year-old land use document, the Comprehensive Plan. Whereas 400 people showed up at Liberty Bell for a local hearing on an earlier revision (2011), and the Coalition for Property Rights claimed attendance of 800 at a meeting on the same plan, only four individuals commented during the most-recent public comment session ending on Oct. 13, 2017.
Why? Hardly anyone realized the comment session was open nor its enormous significance in Okanogan County land use history.
More delays
Superior Court Judge Chris Culp’s order of June 21, 2017, finally brought direction to this expensive and contentious effort to review the county’s future direction. He ordered the county to take “all necessary actions to initiate a review of the Comp Plan, the Zoning ordinance, and the environmental review under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) and applicable county ordinances” within 60 days of his order.
Did that happen? Not so’s you’d notice! And it was ordered that these complex plans be not only completed, but implemented by the end of 2018. Each month, plans for review and discussion are delayed. The county planner seems overwhelmed with various administrative issues. The county has not appointed advisory committees “of sufficient number to provide the planning commission with adequate sources of advice and counsel on matters pertaining to specific areas within the county” (Okanogan County Code 2.64.040.)
A Comprehensive Plan sets policies guiding the four other land use ordinances being considered in 2018. These ordinances regulate development in areas subject to landsides, wildfire and flooding, development in critical wildlife habitat and shorelines, types and density of development in various areas of the county, and rules and locations for subdivisions. The Comp Plan answers questions such as these: Should the county consider emerging climate change issues in future development planning? Should ingress and egress on public roads during emergencies be an issue? What weight should wildlife, open spaces, human movement along our waterways, agriculture and tourism have in considering our economy? Should the county consider availability of clean water in its planning process?
In spite of new commissioners who have corrected many problems of previous administrations, we continue to kick the can down the road, passing important documents at the last minute without adequate public input nor analysis.
If you are interested, it’s time to pay attention.
Isabelle Spohn lives in Twisp and coordinates a group of volunteers who take notes at county commissioner meetings each week and publish them on the Internet.
