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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources April 22 2008WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL Natural Resources Committee April 22, 2008 Committee Chair Carl Weimer called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m. in the Council Chambers, 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham, Washington. Present: Absent: Seth Fleetwood None Bob Kelly Also Present: Laurie Caskey- Schreiber COMMITTEE DISCUSSION 1. REVIEW OF THE AGRICULTURAL WORK PROGRAM AND THE MISSION OF THE AGRICULTURAL TECHNICAL REVIEW COMMITTEE (AB2008 -172) David Stalheim, Planning and Development Services Director, referenced his memo in the Council packet, page 2. The Council authorized funding for the agricultural work program in the current budget. He read the memo regarding the agricultural work program and the status of the work program. See how activities in other areas might work for Whatcom County's program. He read the packet on the agricultural mitigation ordinance, cluster. design, expansion of the agricultural land designations from rural to agriculture, adding Whatcom- Labounty soils to the list of agricultural protection overlay soils, agriculture tourism, and boundary line adjustments in the agricultural zone. Fleetwood stated his intent was clear when he docketed the expansion of agricultural land designations. The Agricultural Advisory Committee (AAC) recommends that the County develop heightened agricultural protections. That is vague. His intent was to look at places in the rural designation that had high quality prime soils analogous to soils right across the boundary in the agricultural designation, and consider expanding the agricultural designation to include those places. When the rural designation was drawn up in 1997, it was too big. The agricultural designation was too small. His intent was to fix it. However, that re- designation would be a downzone. He asked how to implement this without a downzone. Stalheim stated they can look at downzones in certain areas. The agricultural zone is at the edge, and the parcel sizes are large enough to meet the criteria of the agricultural zone. Therefore, there's potential for moving the boundaries. The second issue is dealing with the cluster development in those rural zones that may not meet agricultural interests. They are seeing cluster developments that are not at the edges of the rural zones and may not meet agricultural interests. Look at agricultural clusters is an immediate issue that the department can do. Third, look at encroachment of urban development. Look at where those zone boundaries should be in the context of the 2011 update. Fleetwood asked if a recommendation would come from this agricultural program. If downzone were recommended, it wouldn't happen until 2011. Stalheim stated everything Natural Resources Committee, 4/22/2008, Page 1 has to be adopted by 2011. They need to begin those discussions right now. The deadline is 2011. Weimer stated the rural lands study identified areas that could potentially be included in the agricultural zone. He asked if anyone is identifying the specific parcels. Stalheim stated nothing was identified specifically to show where the boundaries may be changed. That review is on the work plan. No one has reviewed it yet. The parcelization is all over the board in some of those areas, so changing the boundary may not be logical. Trying to find logical boundaries will be an exercise. Weimer stated it will get worse the longer they wait. Stalheim stated interim cluster development work will address that issue. Caskey- Schreiber asked when staff will work on the 2011 update and when in 2011 it will be done. Stalheim stated they must start immediately. He explained what work needs to begin right away. Caskey- Schreiber stated don't risk having everything change after they've gathered all this good information about the current status. She would rather address zoning issues regarding agricultural lands now. Stalheim stated it's not a sequential path. Staff will work through the issues, as will the Agricultural Advisory Committee and Technical Review Committee, which will make recommendations by the end of this year. Fleetwood asked if the majority opinion of the Technical Review Committee (TRC) will inform the administration, as reflected in the staff report. Stalheim stated the TRC is working through the issues and process. Public involvement will be valuable. The AAC's comments on the TRC's recommendations will also be valuable. Fleetwood asked if the work plan item in the memo about converting rural designated areas to agriculture is minimized because it's not one of the four main items the Council approved for the work program. Stalheim stated he doesn't suggest a sequence. He has included everything that's been on the list. The agricultural tourism and boundary line adjustment issues are very important, and seem to have dropped off the list at some point in time. Weimer asked if former Councilmember McShane's docket item is included. Fleetwood stated it seems to be combined in this effort. He asked if the Agricultural Advisory Committee is aware of that. Stalheim stated the TRC went through public involvement for those issues. Fleetwood asked if the Technical Review Committee is considering the idea of transfers of development rights (TDR's) in rural lands. The County has not settled the problem of TDR's in six years. Stalheim stated they plan to combine and centralize the TDR efforts. The TRC will begin working on TDR's in the agricultural areas. Fleetwood stated they may need to give up on the idea of TDR's being used in one particular area. He doesn't recommend or propose that, but they should discuss it, with the idea they will really make it work for one thing rather than watering it down. Caskey- Schreiber stated one idea was to give downzoned property owners rights in a bank, and the County would sell those rights as a condition of every single building permit. She asked if that has ever been discussed. Stalheim stated the biggest challenge with Natural Resources Committee, 4/22/2008, Page 2 TDR's is creating a market for the receiving area, not the sending areas. A team of staff will be gathered to work on the agricultural work program. Weimer asked the number of developable lots in different areas. Stalheim stated they have preliminary, very rough estimates. They've identified up to 2,000 development rights in the agricultural zone. There are about 3,000 to 3,500 rural and agricultural development rights. Caskey- Schreiber stated she would like to hear what the TRC ad AAC think about cluster development in the agricultural zone. Weimer asked if a cluster's receiving property is really still viable for agriculture. Stalheim stated the developments that he's seen are questionable. Kelly asked if there is a list of the most recent recommendations from the Agricultural Preservation Committee. The work of the APC wouldn't make a recommendation to the County Council unless it was justified by the TRC. When the Council gets recommendations, the Council should act on them. Weimer asked if the cluster discussion would include rural forestry. Stalheim stated that is a question for the Council. If they want to pursue rural forestry clusters as an option, he needs to know that. Now, he will focus on agricultural clustering. Stalheim read a letter from the Agricultural Advisory Committee about adding Whatcom La Bounty soils to the list of agricultural protection overlay (APO) soils. Do not include Whatcom LaBounty soils in the APO soil list. It was a unanimous vote from the AAC. Caskey- Schreiber asked if the AAC can make similar recommendations for all the other issues in the memo. Stalheim stated it can. He has to find a staff person to work with the committee. There is an advantage to having their recommendations. A challenge is that the AAC usually takes the summer off. They will come together when called. Weimer asked if a staff report will go to the Planning Commission regarding the soils. Stalheim stated he prefers to just not spend any more time on it. Fleetwood stated the Council could un- docket the item. Caskey- Schreiber stated don't subvert public process. It still has to go through the public process. It shouldn't take that long. Stalheim stated no one paid for this application. His staff's time is very valuable, and a lot of work is involved on it. Caskey- Schreiber stated the AAC is one group. The Planning Commission and Council are other groups. Weimer asked if they can streamline the docketing process to speed things along. They do have to be careful to hear from all sides. Paul Grey, Whatcom Farm Friends Executive Director, submitted a progress report and questionnaire (on file). The public involvement plan includes four objectives that parallel the objectives of the agricultural work program. There are 13 tasks involved in the plan. He read the first task and the mailing report from the handout. They wanted to achieve 95 percent confidence level with the survey. They were pleased with the overall Natural Resources Committee, 4/22/2008, Page 3 results. They got the return rate expected, about 20 percent. They will go back to certain groups for more response. (Clerk's Note: End of tape one, side A.) Weimer asked the difference between a landowner, farmer, and public at- large. Grey stated a farmer actively tills the soil. Landowners own property, but aren't actively farming the properties themselves. The public at -large are citizens who don't follow the first two groups. The three different groups were to see if there is a difference of opinion and knowledge about agriculture and agricultural preservation among the three. He continued to read through the progress report tasks and certain questions from the questionnaire. Caskey- Schreiber stated send out a survey follow -up card to remind folks to send in their survey. Henry Bierlink, Farm Friends, read through the handout about the Technical Review Committee report. The AAC and the TRC work together with the Planning and Development Services Department (PDS) staff. Keep giving the PDS staff the resources they need to make this work. They are trying to focus the TRC on developing workable tools for Whatcom County. Downzoning is one of those tools. They hope to present a number of different tools to the Council. They will come back at the end of the year with a well - developed recommendation. Then the Council must implement the recommendations. Weimer asked the difference between the TRC and AAC membership and what they do. Bierlink stated the TRC is a subset of the AAC, and focuses on developing tools. Weimer asked if the TRC is advisory to the AAC, Farm Friends, or the Council. Bierlink stated it is ultimately advisory to the Council. Fleetwood asked if the greatest threat to agricultural protection in Whatcom County is development, and the greatest tool to deal with it is to reduce density potential. Bierlink stated it is one of the biggest threats. There are more, including water. A question is how they start talking about mitigation in a broader context. Think about how to protect natural resources holistically. Density is very high on the list of concerns. Now, land prices are high and driven by Canadian dollars. Make sure they don't convert that land into houses. Density is a huge threat. Weimer stated the committee was hand - chosen, there wasn't an application process, and the Council was never asked to approve the membership. According to the Code, there is an approval process for committees that are supposed to advise the Council. Bierlink stated there are different types of approval processes. Caskey- Schreiber stated she would like the AAC to review the TRC's work when it's • eM, Weimer asked if the TRC members laid their conflicts of interest on the table. Bierlink stated they did, at the very first meeting. The people had to have some dedication to preserving farmland. If they don't have a concern for preserving the agricultural land base, and are fundamentally opposed to that, they don't belong on the committee. The question is to find out how agriculture, development, and other issues work together. So far, he's pleased with the level of contribution. Meeting minutes are posted on the Farm Natural Resources Committee, 4/22/2008, Page 4 1 Friends website. The TRC generally meets the first and third Monday of the month from 2 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. 3 4 Weimer stated one threat to farming is economic issues, such as selling agricultural 5 products in the agricultural zone. He asked if that is being considered in this process. 6 Stalheim stated it's part of the agricultural tourism issue. They will try to address any 7 obstacles. 8 9 10 OTHER BUSINESS 11 12 There was no other business. 13 14 ADJOURN 15 16 The meeting adjourned at 10:37 a.m. 17 18 � 19 20 Jill Nixon, Minutes Transcription 21 23 ATTEST;����� .�Y CQ.� �i�� WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL 24 .•• "••. /`j'�� WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON 25 J,.•`�"AT �.•.. C� 27 28 • 29 DanaiB row n��$ . ; � Clegk Carl Weimer, Committee Chair Natural Resources Committee, 4/22/2008, Page 5