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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHX07 ORDER re Third Pre Hearing Conference 103025 THIRD PREHEARING CONFERENCE ORDER FILE NO. SUB2025-00012 -- 1 Jefferson County Hearing Examiner 1820 Jefferson St./P.O. Box 1220 Port Townsend, WA 98368 (360) 385-9180 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Before Hearing Examiner Tom Ehrlichman BEFORE THE HEARING EXAMINER FOR JEFFERSON COUNTY In the Matter of the Unit Lot Subdivision ) Project File No. SUB2025-00012 Application Submitted by ) ) THIRD PREHEARING HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF ) CONFERENCE ORDER EAST JEFFERSON COUNTY ) ) Parcel No. 901-023-007 (Port Hadlock) ) ____________________________________) This order is limited to a specific exhibit submitted by the County following issuance of the Second Prehearing Conference Order. By way of background, the Examiner opened the hearing in July 2025, continued the hearing, then issued a series of case management orders between July and October 2025, including granting a continuance requested by the Applicant to allow time to perfect the hearing record. The Applicant submitted two separate plan sets, one for the preliminary plat approval (Unit Lot Subdivision), and one for Site Development Plan approval. Those are distinct exhibits for the two separate decisions before the Hearing Examiner in a consolidated open-record hearing. The Examiner has applied a standard to presentation of the record and exhibits in this case that requires clarity and specificity, particularly on matters affecting fire and traffic safety for this dense, multi-family residential housing development. As initially presented, the record was unclear on those specific issues. The Examiner’s case management orders seek to assure the completeness and integrity of the record, prior to issuing a decision. In his Second Prehearing Conference Order, the Examiner required submittal of the plat and Site Development Plan sheets in a certain format and manner, making clear that his orders concerning the record could be changed only by a limited procedure, as follows: Parties seeking changes to this order must do so in a signed letter or motion (not by telephone or email). THIRD PREHEARING CONFERENCE ORDER FILE NO. SUB2025-00012 -- 2 Jefferson County Hearing Examiner 1820 Jefferson St./P.O. Box 1220 Port Townsend, WA 98368 (360) 385-9180 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Second Prehearing Conference Order at 4:17-18 (Oct. 21, 2025). A clearer procedural directive could not have been issued for the management of the case going forward. On or about October 23, 2025, Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Ariel Speser, representing the Department of Community Development, sent an email to the Office of the Hearing Examiner requesting that the Hearing Examiner modify the requirement for submittal of a full sized copy of the plat and SDP. The County’s email/motion seeks modification of Section 8, Page 4 of the Second Prehearing Conference Order and is denied. The Order states: 8. Full-Size Copy of Plat and SDP and Service of Copies. The Applicant is reminded of the requirements of the Second Case Management Order at 3:1-10. The full- size copy of the Plat and full-size copy of the SDP shall be delivered to the Office of Hearing Examiner in person by no later than 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, with notice of delivery to the parties. The Clerk shall retain the full-size copy of plans until a Final Decision and Order is issued and appeal periods have expired, at which point they shall be delivered to the DCD Administrator for processing. Second Prehearing Conference Order at 4:7-12. In short form, this required the Applicant to provide the Examiner’s Office with a full-sized copy of the Plat and a full-sized copy of the SDP that are the subject of the Applicant’s requests for approval at hearing. For open record hearings on this Type III land use decision, Jefferson County Code and Washington land use laws designate the Hearing Examiner as the single hearing officer “authorized by the local government to conduct such hearings, that creates the local government’s record through testimony and submission of evidence and information . . . “ RCW § § 58.17.020(3), .330. Judicial review of factual issues and conclusions in the decision is confined “to the record created by the quasi-judicial body or officer” (with very limited exceptions not at issue here). RCW § 36.70C.120(1). The record in this matter is designated by the Hearing Examiner, based on evidence and testimony submitted by the parties. In light of the changing record concerning those two submittals over the past three months – all in digital form, the Examiner concluded that it was important to ensure there would never be a question as to which plat or SDP sheets comprised the correct version of the document, and in light of the fact that digital documents can be easily interchanged or altered THIRD PREHEARING CONFERENCE ORDER FILE NO. SUB2025-00012 -- 3 Jefferson County Hearing Examiner 1820 Jefferson St./P.O. Box 1220 Port Townsend, WA 98368 (360) 385-9180 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 over time, either through error or intentional changes. In this particular case, the plat and SDP documents have been altered over time, intentionally, at the invitation of the Hearing Examiner, to allow the applicant the fullest opportunity to present a full and complete record showing that the project has adequately addressed fire-safety and traffic issues. Because digital documents are changeable and have changed during the course of this action, the Examiner feels that the best way to avoid any confusion over the plat document and SDP document is to have them in hand, physically stamped with their own unique Exhibit number. In making this ruling, the Examiner is mindful that the Department may be asking the Applicant to make its record with the Department using all-digital submissions, as a matter of administration.1 As to what preliminary plat and Site Development Plan sheets will comprise the Applicant’s final submittal in the Hearing Examiner’s record of decision, those final documents must be physical, full-size copies, delivered to the Office of Hearing Examiner, and will subsequently be marked by the Examiner’s Clerk at the direction of the Examiner, with the Examiner’s exhibit number. The Examiner will amend his Second Prehearing Conference Order, sua sponte, to change the deadline for submittal of the Applicant’s physical plat and SDP exhibits, required herein to 4:00 p.m., Monday, November 10, 2025. The remainder of the Second Prehearing Conference Order remains unchanged. SO ORDERED, this 30th day of October, 2025. _________________________________ Tom Ehrlichman, Hearing Examiner 1 Civil Deputy Speser’s email attached a letter from DCD addressed to the Applicant.