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Michelle McConnell
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From:
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Stacie Hoskins
Monday, February 09, 2009 7:27 AM
Michelle McConnell
FW: Let's Continue to Run Businesses Out of Jefferson County!
Importance:
High
From: Joe D'Amico [mailto:joe@ssnwhq.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 20098:48 AM
To: jeffbocc
Cc: John Austin; David Sullivan; Philip Morley; Phil Johnson; Leslie Locke; Erin Lundgren; Julie Matthes
Subject: Let's Continue to Run Businesses Out of Jefferson County!
Importance: High
Dear Commissioners,
How many businesses like mine operate near the proposed setbacks?
How many jobs will this affect?
Higher taxes means higher rents for those low income families that don't own
homes...
Why are YOU (Sullivan, Johnson & Austin) increasing the cost to live in
Jefferson County during tough economic times to the young and elderly?
Is it because the county needs tax revenues to support YOUR government and
protracted legal battles?
Setbacks will decrease property values and property will need to be re-assessed
at a lower rate, not stay the same.
Sounds like a taking of real property...
Joe D'Amico
Citizen Jefferson County
Article published Feb 5,2009
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Jefferson County assessor says shoreline plan will raise taxes
By Erik Hidle
Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND -- A state-required shoreline master program update -- which
increases residential building setbacks from marine waterways and river and stream
buffers -- will affect all landowners in the county regardless of their distance from the
water.
Jefferson County Assessor Jack Westerman III said on Wednesday that the shoreline
regulations, if approved as drafted, will have an effect on taxes for everyone in the
county.
"It's a sure thing that for some waterfront homeowners, it would have a dramatic impact
on the value of their property," Westerman said.
"But even if the value of their land goes down, the county will still get the same amount
of taxes."
Westerman made his comments on the same day that the Jefferson County Planning
Commission deliberated over its eventual recommendation to the Jefferson County
commissioners.
Peter Downey, chairman of the commission, said the group has no rigid deadline for a
decision.
"It's supposed to be to the commissioners by June, but the planning commission really
needs to go through it and take a look at it first," he said.
"We don't want to give the county commissioners a document they are going to get
slammed on, as that wouldn't do anybody any good."
Proposed in the update are buffers of 100 feet on lakes and 150-foot setbacks on
saltwater bodies and streams, with a 10-foot building setback from the buffer or
setback.
The existing Shoreline Master Program requires waterfront buffers and setbacks of
between 30 and 100 feet.
The proposal affects about 6,200 shoreline parcels and about 3,200 property owners,
said county Associate Planner Michelle McConnell, and could take two years to make
fi n a I.
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The county has more than 250 miles of marine shore, 22 miles of lake shoreline and
more than 238 miles of river frontage property, mostly on the county's West End.
Local officials are currently huddling on the proposal to see what changes they can
make, but the state Department of Ecology has the final say on the update.
Westerman's analysis
Exact figures on the changes are impossible to define at this point, Westerman said,
because the new regulations aren't likely to be approved until 2011.
Westerman said he intends to let the three Jefferson County commissioners know
about his analysis at their Monday meeting during the public comment period.
Westerman said that the county will collect the set levies for any given year -- meaning
that taxes throughout the county would rise to achieve that number.
"It results in a tax shift," he said.
"The county itself won't lose any money from this, but some property owners will lose
value and others are going to pay more in taxes.
"You have to shift so everyone pays up to the full amount.
"The size of the pie stays the same but the size of the slices change for everyone."
Planning Commission
On Wednesday night, with about a dozen people in the audience, Downey explained
how commissioners will approach the update and consider changes.
"We need to create a Shoreline Master Program that works for Jefferson County," he
said.
"It needs to be easy to understand; it needs to be easy to enforce.
"It needs to address problems with existing regulations and respect the rights of private
property owners."
Public comment on the current draft is closed, but that didn't stop a handful of people
from commenting at the Wednesday night meeting, off the official record.
3
Most comments were concerning the position of Westerman that the plan would raise
taxes.
Larry Carter, a Port Ludlow resident who owns shoreline property, said he was less
worried about his property than about the county as whole.
"It's obvious that the taxes are going to go up, and the property values are going to go
down," he said.
"Where are the winners?
"I think we all have a very mutual interest in protecting our shorelines, but who protects
them?"
Carter said he didn't want to see state bureaucrats on the shorelines of Jefferson
County.
"Those who own shoreline properties, by and large, really care about their shoreline
properties," he said.
"I think the people who own their properties are better keepers of their property than
they would be by becoming wards of the state.
"Let's just leave it alone. If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
More comment?
Barbara Blowers, a Port Townsend waterfront real estate agent, asked the commission
point blank if the public would get a second chance to make official comments.
"You said you were going to review the Shoreline Master Program and said you were
going to make changes," she said.
"Are you going to give us another crack at it?"
Downey said it was his intent to give the public another chance to comment on any
revisions.
"There are changes I would like to see," he said.
"It's my intent that, when we make changes, they will go back to the public for comment
before we go to the commissioners with a final draft."
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Jefferson County planners said that the final draft from Jefferson County lawmakers
would be sent to Ecology for review, and final adoption would likely take place
sometime in 2010.
The state Legislature's deadline for a decision is 2011.
Respectfully,
Joe D'Amico, President
Security Services NW Inc.
HQ 1-800-859-3463 (24 Dispatch)
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