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Home My WebLink About100322 Re_ Third request_ Re_ APPOINTMENT - UPDATE________________________________ ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. ________________________________ Director Butler, So your response is NOW you are “putting something together” and since you have done nothing to this point you are continuing to refuse to enforce your own permit. Does this sound right to you? The DCD has never been on site because a simple measurement from the foundation to the high-water mark would put you knee deep in Puget Sound! This is blatantly obvious to anyone on-site and you are now being untruthful because you know you have done nothing to address our complaint. We are willing to foot the bill to prove we are right and still you come up with excuses. WHY WON’T YOU COME ON-SITE WITH A TAPE MEASURE AND PROVE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? Simply put, because you have done nothing! I am begging the Commissioner’s Board to force the DCD to do their job and enforce their own permit. Please! Jake Opheikens On Oct 3, 2022, at 11:33 AM, Brent Butler <BButler@co.jefferson.wa.us> wrote: Jake, Thanks for your request and reaching out to me. Because DCD is finalizing a series of documents, presentations and reseach related to a Lot of Record project affecting more than 1,000 property owners <https://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/DocumentCenter/View/12771/PR-Moratorium-Oct-14-2021-FINAL-REVISED> our response times are slower than normal. I will schedule a time to meet once this is completed. In the meantime, I’ve asked for a written summary of the site visit, which will be provided in affidavit format once complete. Please be aware that the appeal period for the adjacent permit passed so DCD’s goal is to better understand your concerns so that we may improve the process. This review will likely not affect the outcome of the project already approved. Warm regards, -Brent Brent Butler DCD Director 360-379-4493 From: Jake Opheikens <jakeopheikens@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, October 3, 2022 6:38 AM To: Brent Butler <BButler@co.jefferson.wa.us> Cc: Greg Brotherton <GBrotherton@co.jefferson.wa.us>; JT Cooke <JT@houlihan-law.com>; Sue Kaysinger <kaysinsj@gmail.com>; quetzal.verapaz@gmail.com; Josh Peters <JPeters@co.jefferson.wa.us> Subject: Third request: Re: APPOINTMENT - UPDATE ________________________________ ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. ________________________________ Director Butler, Could I please receive an answer to the following three questions: 1) Can I please receive any/all information and/or documentation that the DCD has about what was been done to investigate our complaint and corresponding survey? I have talked to the public request department and they said they have none. 2) When is the next available time when a inspector can be scheduled on-site? I’m looking for the next available slot on their calendar. 3) When can you meet again to cover some of the questions that remain after our last meeting? Thank you for your time and I look forward to your reply. Jake Opheikens On Sep 30, 2022, at 5:22 PM, Jake Opheikens <jakeopheikens@gmail.com <mailto:jakeopheikens@gmail.com> > wrote: Brent Butler, I still haven’t received the documentation around what was done to verify the permit violations and that “everything is ok” that I asked for below. This is a pressing time sensitive issue and the DCD public records confirmed their is nothing on record that our this complaint/permit violation have been investigated or “is ok”. I look forward to your response. Jake Opheikens On Sep 29, 2022, at 1:04 PM, Jake Opheikens <jakeopheikens@gmail.com <mailto:jakeopheikens@gmail.com> > wrote: We are not planning on having legal counsel present at our next meeting. I apologize for being late. Please schedule us at earliest availability. We would like to discuss what steps were completed to show/prove that the building foundation is 61 feet from the high-water mark (51-foot shoreline setback plus an additional 10-foot structural setback). That was the complaint and your response of “everything was ok” is not an acceptable response when we provided proof in the form of a survey that the building violated these setbacks. Please email the report in response to this email and we can discuss further in the meeting you set. As Susan stated in the meeting there is only one access point to the beachfront and it goes through her property. How could a measurement have been taken without her knowing? Please send your survey verification as soon as possible. As you know this is a time sensitive issue and needs to get resolved as soon as possible. Once again we invite the DCD on-site where we will have our surveyor explain how he and the property owners ecological report show the building permit has been violated by building 35-feet from the high-water mark. Jake Opheikens On Sep 29, 2022, at 12:49 PM, Brent Butler <BButler@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:BButler@co.jefferson.wa.us> > wrote: Dear Jake: Are future meetings going to include counsel that you have retained? If so, please let me know in advance. The Department of Community Development requires that the prosecuting attorney’s office is present, available or informed in advance for meetings where an applicant’s or complainant’s attorney is involved. Before scheduling a second meeting, I will need to know this in advance. For today’s meeting, I thought 30 minutes would be sufficient to discuss your concerns and DCD’s approach/procedures but because your party arrived nearly 20 minutes after the scheduled time, there was insufficient time. As I frequently have back to back meetings like today, sometimes booked many weeks in advance, it’s my hope that upon rescheduling we can use the entire time allocated for discussion. Warm regards, Brent Brent Butler DCD Director 360-379-4493 From: Jake Opheikens <jakeopheikens@gmail.com <mailto:jakeopheikens@gmail.com> > Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2022 10:01 AM To: Brent Butler <BButler@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:BButler@co.jefferson.wa.us> >; Greg Brotherton <GBrotherton@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:GBrotherton@co.jefferson.wa.us> >; JT Cooke <jt@houlihan-law.com <mailto:jt@houlihan-law.com> >; Sue Kaysinger <kaysinsj@gmail.com <mailto:kaysinsj@gmail.com> >; quetzal.verapaz@gmail.com <mailto:quetzal.verapaz@gmail.com> Subject: Re: APPOINTMENT - UPDATE ________________________________ ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. ________________________________ Thank you for meeting with us and sorry for our lateness. I'm following up to schedule a follow-up meeting at your earliest convenience. We would like to discuss the following: 1) Can we have a copy of the report produced from the visit after August 25th? The two people that were sent out were observed by my mother and they NEVER went to the high-water mark. She knows this because she observed the visit and the only access to the beach is through our property and they never came over. She thought they were inspecting the foundation because that is all they looked at. 2) When you say they determined "everything was ok" (without going to the high-water mark) does that mean the Department of Community Development is taking the liability for allowing the construction within their ecological surveys shoreline exemption? Two surveys have measured the distance from the construction to the high-water mark at 35 feet and not the 51-foot setback plus 10-foot structural buffer. We would like the DCD to meet us on-site! We will provide our surveyor and we can walk through this issue. I don't believe the problem has been investigated and would like 20 minutes of your time on-site to discuss it in person. I don't think that is an unreasonable request. I look forward to scheduling something in person and on-site as soon as possible. Jake Opheikens On Thu, Sep 29, 2022 at 11:16 AM Brent Butler <BButler@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:BButler@co.jefferson.wa.us> > wrote: Dear Jake, I’ve been waiting to meet you for the 9am appointment that was scheduled last week. Since I have a 9:30am, 10am, 11am appointments today and booked all afternoon, I think we may need to postpone to another day if you are not here shortly. Warm regards, -Brent Brent Butler Director Jefferson County Department of Community Development 621 Sheridan Street Port Townsend, WA 98368 bbutler@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:bbutler@co.jefferson.wa.us>