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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSpecial Council August 31 1989WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING August 31, 1989 The meeting was called to order at 1 p.m. by Council Chairman Don Hansey. Other Council Members Present: Absent: Tom Burton Emily Jackson Corky Johnson Will Roehl Dan Warner Mary Vanderpol 1. CONSIDERATION OF EMERGENCY ORDINANCE AMENDING THE LAKE WHATCOM SUBAREA COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AND TITLE 20 ZONING ORDINANCE Hansey read his opening statement, which follows: "On Tuesday morning at approximately 10 a.m. John Tyler, Deputy Public Works Director, phoned me as Chairman of the County Council to advise the Council of a serious problem regarding the Lake Whatcom Subarea Comprehensive Plan and related zoning in Title 20 of the County Code. Mr. Tyler advised that due to a "sunset clause" in a previously - adopted ordinance which established a moratorium on construction in the Lake Whatcom Watershed several years ago, that no land use plan or zoning was currently in effect in this area. I discussed this with Executive Pro -Tem Will Roehl and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Randy Watts to determine what action the Council should take. Because of the potential problems that could be created with no zoning in place it was determined that an emergency meeting of the Council should be called to consider an emergency ordinance to temporarily remedy the situation until permanent resolution could be made. The purpose of this meeting is to consider the emergency ordinance to reinstate the comprehensive plan and associated zoning and, under state law, no other matters may be added to the agenda or considered at this emergency meeting (RCW 42.30.080)." Haney asked Diane Harper, Planning, to speak on behalf of Planning Director Dan Taylor, who was out of town. Harper said neither she nor Taylor were on staff when the subarea plan for Lake Whatcom was adopted. She said a Seattle consulting firm was working on a study to examiner potential impacts of development on the watershed, and a "sunset clause" was included in the ordinance so that the findings of that study would be incorporated into the subarea plan when they were available. Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances and the negligence of the consultant, the study was not finished. Bill Trimm, former Planning Director, noted in the spring of Minutes, 8/31/89, Page 2 1985 that it was obvious the consultant would never finish the plan. The Executive withheld payment from the consultant and the project was give to Western Washington University's Huxley College to complete. In December of 1986, the watershed plan was at last completed; however, at that time the zoning for the subarea had been expired for five months, due to the sunset clause. Harper said neither Trimm, the Planning staff, nor the Prosecuting Attorney's Office had followed up on the sunset clause, due to staff changes and other factors. It was a year from the plan's completion until the Lake Whatcom Watershed Advisory Committee had finished reviewing the plan and presented it to the County Council. Dave Cottingham, Deputy Prosecutor, John Tyler of Buildings and Codes, and Harper wrote up the emergency ordinance two weeks ago; Public Works Director Paul Rushing revised it, and it was delivered to the Executive's Office. The plan was to introduce the emergency ordinance at the September 7 Council meeting in order to avoid broadcasting the situation, Harper said. Within the next 60 days, Harper said the Planning Commission will review the zoning and subarea plans for the watershed, then present an ordinance recommending adoption of the plans to the Council. If the Council would like the entire zoning ordinance to be rewritten, the Planning Department's priorities will need to be shifted by the Council, she said. Johnson asked why, if this was a serious problem at 10 a.m. Tuesday (as Hansey indicated), the Council had not been notified of the emergency until the. day before this meeting. He also said he would like to make sure the new comp plan and zoning ordinance would be ready for Council action within the 60 -day emergency ordinance period. Harper said she apologized for the Council not being notified of the situation, but that the Executive had been alerted to the situation and staff was working on the premise that something would be done at the Sept. 7 regular meeting. She said perhaps it was an error in judgment to have not called a special meeting. There was more discussion. Haney asked if the comp and zoning plans could be adopted within the 60 -day period; Harper said yes. Tyler said the situation came to light when a property owner at Sudden Valley questioned the zoning in May of this year. At that time, Tyler said, Taylor, Tyler and Cottingham discussed the matter and decided to put it on the back burner. Later they noted that the situation was more serious than they had thought because although most of the subarea still was under interim zoning, the Geneva and Sudden Valley areas were unclassified. The matter was brought to the Executive's attention, and her determination was that an emergency ordinance should be drafted and presented at the Sept. 7 Council meeting. Tyler said an emergency State Environmental Policy Act determination has been issued to go along with the ordinance. Haney asked if it were true that in unclassified areas, anything could be built; for example, a factory or rendering plant could have been allowed in a residential area. Tyler said yes. Harper said the sunset clause seemed only to apply to urban density areas, but staff felt it would be wiser to re -adopt the whole thing. WARNER MOVED THAT THE EMERGENCY ORDINANCE BE ADOPTED. Minutes, 8/31/89, Page 3 Warner said his perception was that this ordinance would only put into place what: people already thought was there. Haney noted that item 2 on the agenda would not be acted upon; the permanent ordinance had not been prepared and would need to go through the Planning Commis- sion process. Johnson said that a time limit should be added to the emergency ordinance, so that action will be taken on a permanent ordinance before it expires. JOHNSON MOVED TO AMEND THE EMERGENCY ORDINANCE, ADDING THE FOLLOWING: "BE IT FINALLY ORDAINED THAT IT SHALL BE THE POLICY OF THE WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL TO HAVE THE FINAL ORDINANCE BEFORE IT IN SUFFICIENT TIME FOR IT TO BE EFFECTIVE NO LATER THAN OCTOBER 31,1989." There was some discussion. Haney suggested that he would write a letter saying the same thing, but Johnson said it would be best to have it in the ordinance because a letter has no teeth to it. ROEHL MOVED THAT THE EMERGENCY ORDINANCE TITLE BE REVISED, TO ADD THE FOLLOWING WORDS: "AND ADOPTING THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR THE LAKE WHATCOM SUBAREA. Motion to amend the title carried. There was some discussion of the wording of Johnson's motion. Johnson's motion carried. Motion to adopt the emergency ordinance carried 5 -0, with Roehl abstaining (he felt that as Executive Pro -Temp, he should not vote on the ordinance). 2. INTRODUCTION OF AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE LAKE WHATCOM SUBAREA COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AND TITLE 20 ZONING ORDINANCE (Haney said earlier in the meeting that this item would not be acted upon). The meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m. ATTEST: Ramona Reeves, Reeves, Council Clerk .w VA mug • • •I�li�hM 1 I G. fd*y, Chairman GTON