Related Pages

List of stories about Growth Management Act in San Juan County

GMA hearing moved to March 6 and 7

Work on San Juan County's Comprehensive Plan continues on several fronts. Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board has changed the dates of the hearing to be held in Friday Harbor from Jan. 17 to March 6 and 7. Here is a status report on the comp plan.

Guesthouses:
The county filed an appeal in Thurston County contesting the hearings board's ruling on guesthouses. The board ruled Nov. 30 that the county's guesthouse provisions were invalid. The county was given 180 days to reanalyze the effects of the comp plan's guesthouse provisions on density.

The county has also filed a petition with the hearings board asking for clarification of the guesthouse ruling. Commissioner John Evans wants to know whether the order applies to someone who built a guesthouse first and now wants to build the main house. According to County Deputy Prosecutor Alan Marriner a permit application from a family in that situation has been received by the county Permit Center. A moratorium on guesthouse construction has been in effect since the Nov. 30, 2000 ruling.

Redesignations:
In their Nov. 30 ruling the hearings board ruled the redesignations of 10 parcels in the comp plan were invalid. The parcels which constitute 1,100 acres are subject to a moratorium until the order of invalidity is lifted.

The county is asking for reconsideration regarding three of the 10 parcels -- Deer Harbor Community Hall property, Westlund property near Lopez Village and the Sandwith property on San Juan Island. County Deputy Prosecutor Alan Marriner says the county feels the redesignations for those properties were before the public for a sufficient amount of time. The Deer Harbor and Lopez Village property were discussed by the planning commission and appeared on maps shown in public hearings. The Sandwith property redesignation was part of a legal agreement between the county and the Sandwith family.

Owners of Eagle Lake, one of the 10 parcels ruled invalid, have filed a motion for reconsideration. The county has joined in that case.

When the hearings board issued its order of invalidity for the ten parcels, it did not give any deadline. According to Marriner action by the county will be required before the order of invalidity can be lifted.

March 6 and 7 hearing:
During the two days the hearings board will hear three cases.

First up will be Wally Gudgell's challenge of a rural designation for an property in Westsound.

Then the three members of the hearings board will turn their attention to the continuing case from 1999. The issues of AMIRDs, affordable housing and rural densities are included in that case. See previous stories for details.

The third case consists of eight appeals filed by individuals and the Town of Friday Harbor. The appeals are:

• George Steed is challenging the Roche Harbor Resort Residential Activity Center and transient rentals in rural residential neighborhoods.
  
  
• Dorothy Mudd is challenging the Lopez Village and Eastsound Urban Growth Areas.
  
  
• The Town of Friday Harbor is challenging the rural residential clusters and the consistency between the town's and the county's comprehensive plans regarding guesthouses.
  
  
• John Campbell is challenging the adequacy of the county's efforts to encourage growth in the UGAs.
  
  
• Fred Klein is challenging the Eastsound UGA.
  
  
• Bahrych, Johnson and Symons are challenging the densities in rural and resource lands, transient rentals, protections for conservancy lands, and the adequacy of SEPA review.
  
  
• Michael Durland is challenging the designation of a property in Deer Harbor.
  
  
• Joanne Smith and Frederick E. Ellis, Jr. are challenging the establishment of Lopez Village as a UGA.

Seven comp plan appeals filed

Rural clustering, guest houses, the Lopez Village UGA and the Eastsound UGA are the subject of some of the appeals filed against the county's Comprehensive Plan. Seven appeals were filed by the Monday, Dec. 11 deadline.

Appeals were filed by John Campbell, Fred Klein, Lynn Bahrych, Wally Gudgell, George Steed, Dorothy Mudd, and the Town of Friday Harbor.

The town's appeal focuses on the county's rural clustering concept.

Steed is challenging two sections of the county's plan. The change of definition for transient rentals from commercial to residential is neither logical nor legitimate according to him. He is also challenging the creation of the residential activity center in the Roche Harbor area.

Mudd is asking for a review of the creation of the Eastsound Urban Growth Area and the Lopez Village Urban Growth Area. She questions whether the county has adequately addressed the issue of providing urban level services to the areas.

William Nielsen, a member of the hearings board, is compiling a list of issues from the three cases. Marriner expects the list will include 40 to 50 items, some of which will be able to be consolidated.