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Home My WebLink Aboutres1993-060WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL AGENDA BILL NO. 93 -290A CLEARANCES Initial Date Date Received in Council Office: Agenda date Assigned to: Originator. Larry Harris 9/14/93 Council'- addendum Division Head: 9/28/93 Council /Water Resources Dept. Head: Prosecutor. Purchasing/Budget: Executive: SUBJECT Resolution regarding implementation of the Lake Whatcom Watershed Urbanization Program ATTACHMENTS: Resolution with Exhibit "N' Letter from the Bellingham City Council, and other documents on file SUMMARY STATEMENT.• Please complete sections of box as appropriate & explain the item below Related County contract #: Should Clerk schedule a hearing? NO YES Requested date: Amount budgeted for this item /project: $ Is it or will it be within budget? YES NO Please explain below Budget line item number(s): , The Joint Lake Whatcom Management Committee approved the Lake Whatcom Goals and Policies and requests sTPedy implementation. Together the City and County Planning departments developed the proposed anization program. The Joint Committee County approval is requested. The Joint Committee stated in a summary of its August meeting that the County Council is being asked to encourage the allocation, of resources to the urbanization program. The County Council is not being asked to change regulations in one quick vote. Water District 10 and the Bellingham City Council have been asked to take similar action. The next meeting of the Joint Committee is September 30. ORIGINATOR'S RECOMMENDED ACTION.- Harris recommends that the resolution be passed. COMMI77EE ACTION TAKEN: 9/28/93: COUNCIL ACTION TAKEN: 9/14/93: This item was withdrawn. 9/28/93: Council approved the resolution. 7 -0. Related File Numbers: Ordinance or Resohn on Number (this item only): Res 93 -060 watershd.res 9/10/93 SPONSORED BY: Harris Amended 9/28/93 PROPOSED BY: Harris INTRODUCTION DATE: 9/14%93 . 1 RESOLUTION NO. 93-060 2 APPROVING AND ENCOURAGING IMPLEMENTATION OF 3 THE LAKE WHATCOM WATERSHED URBANIZATION PROGRAM 4 WHEREAS, the Joint Lake Whatcom Management Committee approved the Lake 5 Whatcom Goals and Policies; and 6 WHEREAS, the Joint Lake Whatcom Committee requested speedy implementation 7 of Goal 13: "Urbanization /Development: Prevent water quality degradation associated with 8 development within the watershed;" and 9 WHEREAS, the Joint City and County Planning Departments responded to this 10 request in a timely manner with a Lake Whatcom Management Plan, Proposed 11 Urbanization Program; and 12 WHEREAS, Water District 10 and the Bellingham City Council has urged the 13 Whatcom County Council to proceed with the Urbanization Program for the Lake Whatcom 14 Watershed; and ..i WHEREAS, the approach to implementation of the Urbanization Program is 16 outlined in Exhibit tt A to this resolution. . ............................... ............................... . ............................... ............................... 17 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Whatcom County Council that the 18 Lake Whatcom Management Committee is requested to begin implementation of the Lake 19 Whatcom Watershed Urbanization Program, as proposed in Exhibit * MOM M A to this 20 resolution. 21 APPROVED this 28th day of September , 1993. 22 WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL 23 ATTEST: WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON 24 A-ZC� 4. A2,- 25 Ramona Reeves, Council Clerk Marge idlaw, Council Chair 26 APPROVED AS TO FORM AND CONTENT: 27 28 Civil Deputy Prosecuting Atty. Lake Whatcom Management Plan June 18, 1993 devised July, Sept, Oct) Recommended Approach tAttachment A) Page 1 ATTACHMENT A Lake Whatcom Management Plan Proposed Urbanization Program Recommended Approach Land use is considered the highest priority. action item in the Lake Whatcom watershed. After examining the various alternatives available, the following actions appear to provide the best combination to ensure maximum protection to the watershed while minimizing staff effort and Planning Commission and Council time. It must be understood, however, that this will require more Planning Department time than is presently available (and, therefore, will cause other work items to slip) and may have serious political consequences which could, possibly, out -weigh the benefits. Action 1 and 2 are parallel work items; Action 3 and 4 are sequential. SUMMARY Action 1 Consider revisions to the development standards with special drainage standards for Lake Whatcom Watershed as necessary. Action 2 Review County lot consolidation regulations. Provide incentives for lot consolidation. Action 3 Establish interim Urban Growth Boundaries and non -urban interim zoning in accordance with GMA, fall 1993 or winter 1994. Action 4 Continue with Growth Management Planning Process followed by Lake Whatcom Subarea planning, as the highest priority in fall 1994. THE PROCESS Action 1 The County should proceed with review of the regulations leading to revised development standards including drainage standards, As a second phase, the County may implement a water resource protection area, including, or perhaps limited to, the Lake Whatcom Watershed where stricter standards will apply as appropriate. This work would be done by the storm water team, but is listed here as directly addressing the third element of the goal and is also considered to be one of the most effective actions that can be taken. Action 2 As a parallel action, the County should review our lot consolidation regulations to consider making them more parallel to the City of Bellingham's. This action could encourage lot consolidation for contiguous lots under the same ownership when the lots are smaller than those required by the underlying zone. Its major impact could be in the Sudden Valley and Geneva areas. This is in keeping with other efforts in the watershed and should not be particularly controversial. The potential benefit of this action is not known at this time. A better estimate will be developed during the staff analysis. This will require 40 -60 hours of a Planner's time, plus some intern assistance and the Planning Director's time. It will also require a public hearing before the Planning Commission, plus one or two work sessions. The consequences will be to set some private rezone requests back by one or two months and cause some minor delay in our Growth Management effort. Lake Whatcom Management Plan June 18, 1993 (revised Ju /y, Sept, Oct) Recommended Approach (Attachment A) Page 3 Action 3 Whatcom County Planning staff and the City of Bellingham will begin efforts this summer to establish interim Urban Growth Areas in accordance with the 1993 Growth Management legislation. As a corollary to the Urban Growth Areas, interim zoning could be established for the non -urban areas which could limit subdivision activity. Details on whether clustering or PUD's should be allowed would be looked at during the process. This interim zoning would be in place until the Growth Management efforts are completed some time in 1995. The actual staff work by the County and City Planning staff will be relatively modest during this step for the initial, direct activities of establishing Urban Growth Areas and non -urban interim zoning, (possibly less than 100 combined hours of everyone's time in the two departments). However, follow -up time during the hearing and final adoption process before our respective Commissions and Councils is unpredictable, and hours that will be needed for SEPA processing are unclear at this time. Action 4 Proceed with normal Growth Management activities with the Lake Whatcom Subarea as the highest priority subarea after the overall Growth Management Plan has been adopted. This integrates the Lake Whatcom process into the Growth Management process avoiding redundant efforts and allowing all of the tools of Growth Management to come to bear on the Lake Whatcom issues. When the Growth Management Policy Plan is adopted sometime after July 1994, the special focus Lake Whatcom may need can then be applied. Meanwhile, adequate protection is in place to provide the leisure to proceed in this orderly fashion. This action can be expressed in two steps: Step 1: Complete Growth Management planning by July 1994 or as soon thereafter as possible. Step 2: Complete the regulations to implement the plan including Lake Whatcom Subarea review as the highest priority.