HomeMy WebLinkAbout070819_ra01 Regular Agenda
JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA REQUEST
TO: Board of County Commissioners
Philip Morley, County Administrator
FROM: Patty Charnas, Director, Dept. Community Development
DATE: July 8, 2019
SUBJECT: Resolution Establishing the Critical Areas Regulatory Reform Task Force
and Appointing Its Members
STATEMENT OF ISSUE:
The BoCC is asked to approve the Resolution establishing a Critical Areas Regulatory Reform
Task Force and appointing its initial members.
ANALYSIS:
Jefferson County plans under the Washington State Growth Management Act(GMA). The GMA
requires counties and cities that plan under the Act to adopt a Comprehensive Plan and to
designate and protect critical areas. The GMA further requires counties and cities to periodically
update their Comprehensive Plans and the implementing regulations of the Plan, including critical
areas regulations. Jefferson County Department of Community Development(DCD) is in the
process of completing the periodic updates to its Critical Areas Ordinance(CAO).
The Board of County Commissioners adopted a completed,updated Comprehensive Plan in
December of 2018. In shaping and adopting the Comprehensive Plan,the Board recognized the
importance of regulatory reform for economic development, affordable housing and residential
development while continuing to protect public health and the environment, assist the County in
adapting to climate change, and make it easier, less time consuming and cheaper for applicants to
comply with regulations and for County staff to administer them.
The CAO constitutes the regulations governing development and uses on land adjacent to or on
critical areas. Critical areas are: wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, geologically
hazardous areas, frequently flooded areas and critical aquifer recharge areas. These regulations
affect land uses and development and modifications within the critical areas and their buffers.
On March 25, 2019, the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution No.
17-19 A Joint Resolution of the Board of County Commissioners and the Jefferson County
Board of Health Establishing a Regulatory Reform Program for Jefferson County. In that
Resolution is stated direction to DCD to protect Jefferson County's environment and public
health while streamlining and simplifying the structure of the County Code, including its
CAO.
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Regular Agenda
As part of meeting this directive, a regulatory reform task force is being assembled to assist the
County in completing the drafting of the CAO. The CAO has been revised in draft and the
majority of that revised draft CAO has been briefed to the Jefferson County Planning
Commission. Those Planning Commission briefings were generally positive on the draft
revisions. It was jointly decided between DCD and the Planning Commission that more work
on CAO revisions was advisable, with the Planning Commission making special note of the
need for more work to be done on content related to critical areas protections in areas of
agricultural activities.
The Critical Areas Regulatory Reform Task Force will be comprised of private individual
citizens who broadly represent Jefferson County stakeholders involved in or affected by local
regulations, including the CAO. This nine-member group represents land use planning and
development, environmental protection and salmon recovery interests, agriculture and resource
conservation, real estate and building trades and each Commissioner district. A representative
from Jefferson County Department of Community Development (DCD) and the Jefferson
County Planning Commission are serving as Task Force members.
The primary mission of the Task Force is to review the CAOs of other GMA-compliant
counties, and compare and contrast those development standards to see if, through the lens of
regulatory reform, Jefferson County's CAO can be made easier to read, understand and be
successfully implemented. The Task Force will not be a decision-making body but a group
assembled to review, comment on, and make recommendations related to the CAO. Once
established, a Task Force charter and ground rules will more specifically define the role,
function and operating ground rules for its members.
The Resolution directs the Task Force to complete its review and deliver its recommendations
to the Department of Community Development, with copies to the Planning Commission and
Board of County Commissioners on or before December 31, 2019, after which the Task Force
sunsets.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Work associated with and the participation on this Task Force and subsequent completion of
the draft CAO is funded entirely by the County's general fund.
RECOMMENDATION:
Approve the Resolution establishing a Critical Areas Regulatory Reform Task Force and
appointing its initial members.
,VIEWED BY: ..7 7
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Pp or y,•.County Administrator Date
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COUNTY OF JEFFERSON
STATE OF WASHINGTON
A Resolution Establishing and Appointing
Members to a Jefferson County
Critical Areas Regulatory Reform Task Force ) RESOLUTION NO.
WHEREAS, the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners advocates public participation and
encourages citizen involvement in all matters of County government; and
WHEREAS,the County is required to update the critical areas ordinance as part of the periodic
review and update to its Comprehensive Plan and development regulations in accordance with
Washington State's Growth Management Act(GMA), RCW 36.70A; and
WHEREAS, on March 25, 2019, the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners and the Jefferson
County Board of Health adopted a resolution 17-19, a Joint Resolution establishing a Regulatory
Reform Program for the County, including directing the Department of Community Development to
use the updates to the critical areas ordinance (CAO) as an opportunity to holistically analyze and
reform regulations, protect the environment, and create efficient development practices and
permitting paths; and,
WHEREAS,the Board of County Commissioners are empowered to create task forces by the general
governmental powers with which county legislative bodies are vested;
1. THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED,that The Jefferson County Board of Commissioners hereby
establishes the Critical Areas Regulatory Reform Task Force to advise the County with
recommendations as the County finalizes drafting updates to the CAO.The Task Force is
authorized to discuss and collectively recommend refinements to the policy, regulations and
environmental standards in the existing draft of the CAO update, for potential inclusion in a
revised draft CAO update in the following manner:
(i) Compare each article or major topic in the existing draft CAO update with how it is
addressed in the adopted standards from a limited number of neighboring jurisdictions
as provided by the County's consultant, and potentially recommend revising the existing
draft CAO update to include one or more provisions from those other GMA-compliant
CAO standards;
(ii) In performing (i), be guided substantially by the letter and intent of Resolution 17-19;
(iii) Utilize existing information including the existing record of best available science; and
(iv) Work cooperatively with County management and the County's consultant;
2. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Critical Areas Regulatory Reform Task Force is directed to
complete its review and deliver its recommendations to the Department of Community
Development, with copies to the Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners on
or before December 31, 2019, and the Task Force shall dissolve immediately at the end of
December 31, 2019, or after delivering its recommendations,whichever is first;
3. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,that the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners hereby appoints
the following representatives with broad and diverse skill sets that relate to this update effort,
to serve as the initial members of the Critical Areas Regulatory Reform Task Force:
Jean Ball, District 3 citizen
John Bellow, Spring Rain Farms
Al Cairns,Jefferson County Conservation District
Kevin Coker,Jefferson County Planning Commission
Craig Durgan, Business Owner
Robin Fitch, District 2 citizen
Donna Frostholm,Jefferson County DCD
Linda Herzog, Facilitator/Quilcene Community
Steve Mader, Environmental Scientist/Consultant
Teresa Michelson, District 1 citizen
4. FINALLY, BE IT RESOLVED,that the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners may make future
changes to the membership of the Critical Areas Regulatory Reform Task Force by a motion
approved by the Board of Commissioners to add or remove a member.
Adopted this day of 2019
JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Kate Dean, Chair
David Sullivan, Member
Greg Brotherton, Member
ATTEST:
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Carolyn Gallaway, Phil Hunsucker,
Deputy Clerk of the Board Chief Civil Prosecuting Attorney