Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2961-283 -Jan 29 09 09:26a D~er Corp 3603?9093~ p.l RECEIVEDj (OVh~ \f\J\t:.\, UlM~ J~u 2 11'1 2rlfi'(}1 iF.il iJ wuJl VIA FAX: 360-379-4451 JEfFERSON CQUNTY Den r::.~{P1 ~ January 28, 2009 Jefferson County Planning Commission 621 Sheridan Street Port Townsend, Wa 98368 SUBJECT: Jefferson County Shoreline Master Program To Whom It'May Concern: We are very angry with the revisions you are proposing for the Jefferson County Shoreline Master Program. We recently bought waterfront property and paid a prerr;J.ium price to do so and your changes have a severe impact on our investment. It is unreasonable and unfair to propose a 150 "generic" shoreline buffer and impose severe , restrictions on beach access. We take great exception to the fact that property owners may not be able to build an access to the beach or have severe conditions to meet in order to do so and yet the public can access it from public areas and walk the beach and leave trash. Where is the justice in this??? We have been trying to wade through all this information and find it to be very cumbersome and difficult to understand. But we feel it is totally unfair to existing and future property owners. We feel that we had very short notification on this issue and we feel that you are rushing through a proposal that will be tied up in courts for many years to come. We also understand that last minute changes were not available,to the public and that there appears to be a strong conflict of interest with the chairman of the commission. To make the requirements for beach stairs so difficult and expensive that a property owner can not enjoy his right to enjoy his property is unfair. I have to agree with Peter Brockman on his assessment of the inequities in your revisions as it pertains to beach access. We support all of his input on modification of this proposal. We feel properly built access to the beach is far preferable to other things we have seen and it has minimal impact. The new requirements are burdensome and expensive. The process is not clear and appears to be subjective. We agree that the beach access should be under the building department permitting process under the definition of "appurtenance" in Article 2A.27. Stairs and other means to access the beach vary from property to property and need to be engineered to work with each individual site. You can not set a certain size as it may not work for all cases. You are being very restrictive and are taking rights away from 1 ~Jan 29 09 09:26a D~er Corp 3603790935 p.2 '. property owners who have paid high property taxes for the right to be on the waterfront. Your changes are so restrictive that you would think. this was Russia not the United States. All property owners should be afforded the right to reasonable access to their shoreline. All shoreline is not equal and to arbitrarily decide that everyone fits into one category is unfair. We are extremely angry over the provision that would require a house damaged by fire or other means to be rebuilt in a new location. This compounds the tragedy and imposes additional financial burdens as all things are not covered under insurance. We would like to see this provision stricken. We would like the commission to reconsider the current draft and seek a more balanced and fair approach. RECEIVED ~JAN2 9 2009 JEFFERSON COUNTY DeD "".' 2