|
Birch Bay boat launch hearing set
By Jack
Kintner
The
Birch Bay Steering Committee, faced with losing the state
park’s boat launch over a shoreline development permit
squabble between Birch Bay State Park and the county, decided
to submit a letter to the hearing examiner in support of
the launch and its present location. Claudia Hollod made
a motion at the committee’s first meeting of the new
year to send the letter, a follow-up to a petition in November.
The motion was seconded by Bill Grant and passed 14-0 with
one abstention.
The launch is at the south end of Birch Bay State Park and
is closed with winter storm debris. County planning and
development services staff found it in violation of county
shoreline development codes after a review sparked by complaints
from neighboring land owner Pete Hansen. Parks representatives
maintain that the launch site has been in use since before
county shoreline regulations came into effect in 1974 and
should be allowed to remain as a non-conforming use.
State parks filed an appeal to the county decision which
keeps the launch technically open until the county hearing
examiner rules on it. The hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. February
6 in county council chambers. If the state parks loses the
appeal, the launch will close until it meets the requirements
of the county Shoreline Management Program, something park
manager Ted Morris estimated would take “at least a
year.” Morris said state parks would apply to keep
the launch where it is rather than move it to another location
in the park.
A second issue faced earlier in the meeting dealt with a
land use in an area zoned heavy industrial and lying between
the BP Cherry Point Refinery and the shoreline. The steering
committee’s land use plan projects a change in much
of the area’s zoning to low density residential, something
favored by Trillium Corporation who hopes to develop 600
acres it owns for private homes that would have a view of
Georgia Straight, the San Juans and the Gulf Islands.
Mike Abendhoff, manager of government and public affairs
for the B.P. Cherry Point Refinery, urged the steering committee
to enlarge the industrially zoned area west of the present
refinery in its plan to reflect the current zoning. “It’s
the last site zoned for heavy industry in the county. There’s
also a safety factor of not building residential homes too
close,” Abendhoff said.
The steering committee took no action, deciding by consensus
this is something to be worked out between the county, Trillium
and BP. The land use plan remained as is “but we now
expect some changes in it, based upon what these parties
negotiate,” said committee secretary Kathy Berg.
The steering committee also approved traffic revisions to
enlarge two roads that intersect with Birch Bay-Lynden Road:
Harbor View north to Lincoln Road and Kickerville south
to Grandview.
Upcoming committee meetings are January 23, to review the
first seven chapters of the comprehensive plan, and January
30 to look at governance issues. All meetings are at 7 p.m.
at Birch Bay Leisure Park..
.
Back
to Top
|
