HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022 03 09 Letter to the Hearing Examiner re public hearing for MLA 21-00066
JAMES M. KENNEDY
Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney
Philip C. Hunsucker, Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor
Christopher R. Ashcraft, Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor
Anna K. Phillips, Deputy Prosecutor
Tuppence Macintyre, Deputy Prosecutor
Melissa Pleimann, Deputy Prosecutor
Barbara Ehrlichman, Civil Deputy
Lysa Phillis, Child Support Enforcement
Amanda Hamilton, Victim/Witness Coordinator
Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office
1820 Jefferson Street
Post Office Box 1220
Port Townsend, WA 98368
Phone: (360) 385-9180
Fax: (360) 385-0073
www.co.jefferson.wa.us/prosecutor
March 9, 2022
Jefferson County Hearing Examiner
1820 Jefferson Street
Port Townsend, WA 98368
RE: Possible SEPA Appeal of the Determination of Nonsignificance Issued for the Pomona
Woods Conditional Use Permit Application MLA 21- 00066
Dear Mr. Examiner:
I am writing to provide the Hearing Examiner with the Department of Community
Development’s (“DCD”) response to a letter to you dated March 8, 2022 om the above-
referenced case from attorney Alexander Sidles on behalf of Oak Bay Concerned Citizens. I
have two requests, as outlined below.
1. DCD requests that the hearing be continued, after opening the hearing at the already
publicly-noticed time and date on March 17 and allowing public testimony.
Mr. Sidles requested that DCD cancel the hearing a couple of days ago. DCD has declined to
reschedule the hearing as of now, as it has not yet received a SEPA appeal, and does not wish to
cancel a scheduled public hearing on the possibility that a SEPA appeal may be received. In
addition, we believe that this decision is best handled by the Hearing Examiner.
Given the unfortunate fact that the SEPA appeal deadline occurs the day before the open record
hearing is scheduled before the Hearing Examiner, the County agrees with Mr. Sidles that the
hearing will need to be continued from that date. The County would prefer to see the hearing
opened on March 17, 2022, however, so that anyone who wishes to provide any testimony on the
date of the already publicly-noticed hearing date be allowed to do so.
Our proposal is that the hearing examiner open the hearing on March 17 as scheduled, and
inform all participants on the record of the SEPA appeal and the necessity to continue the
hearing to a later date to allow the Appellant to put together its case and hold a combined
hearing, as required under law. Our suggestion is that the hearing could start off as follows:
DCD could provide a short presentation introducing the project (no more than 30 minutes) and
then anyone who wished to testify at that time could do so after that. We would ask that the
Examiner explicitly state that an opportunity for public testimony will also be offered at the date
Letter to the Hearing Examiner RE: MLA 21-00066
March 9, 2022
Page 2
for the continued hearing, and even allow those who testified on March 17 to add to their
testimony if they wish. At the end of public testimony, the Examiner would continue the hearing
to a date certain.
DCD makes this request because we went through a similar process last year in a SEPA appeal
of a different project. There the SEPA appeal was also filed shortly before the public hearing
date, by no fault of the Appellant. The Hearing Examiner continued the hearing without
allowing public testimony. Subsequently, DCD and the County received quite a bit of negative
public feedback about the lack of transparency of that process.
DCD is committed to allowing citizens a full opportunity to participate in land use hearings
before the Hearing Examiner. Given the fact that many people may have arranged their
calendars to participate on March 17th, and that we will likely not be assured of a SEPA appeal
until it comes through our door on March 16th, DCD believes that the most open, transparent
process would be to proceed with the public hearing as scheduled and allow for testimony on that
day, even though citizens would also have the opportunity to testify at the continued hearing.
2. DCD requests that the Hearing Examiner schedule a prehearing conference prior to
opening the public hearing on March 17th, so that we can come up with a date
certain for continuance of the hearing to announce at the public hearing.
DCD would like to see the date of the continued hearing announced at the March 17 hearing.
Because a continuance is not public noticed in the same way a public hearing is, it is important to
provide interested parties with this information. I will work with the Helena Smith and Mr.
Sidles to see if we can come up with some agreed-upon dates for the continued hearing prior to
the prehearing conference.
Please let me know if I can provide any further clarification on this matter.
Sincerely,
Barbara Dykes Ehrlichman
Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
cc: Ann Burkhart, Applicant
Alex Sidles, Attorney for Potential Appellant
Helena Smith, Planning Technician
Amanda Hunt, Assistant Planner
Peggy Cahill, Bricklin & Newman
Jodi Adams, Acting Community Development Director
Brent Butler, Community Development Director