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Home My WebLink About2961-647 Draft Shoreline Master Program comments GJi'?\ Jr' f/';'t'lI"rVQ.I1i i;, Page 1 of 1 Jeanie Orr 2tC]&/ From: Jeanie Orr Sent: Wednesday, June 17,20093:59 PM To: Michelle McConnell Cc: AI Scalf; Stacie Hoskins; Jeanie Orr Subject: FW: Draft Shoreline Master Program comments Attachments: Jeff Co 6-3-09 SMP comments,doc From: Person, Randy (PARKS) [mailto:Randy.Person@PARKS.WA.GOV] Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 20093:03 PM To: #Long-Range Planning Cc: Karlson, Ryan (PARKS) Subject: Draft Shoreline Master Program comments Attached are comments from the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission on the June 3, 2009 release of the Jefferson County Draft Shoreline Master Program. <<Jeff Co 6-3-09 SMP comments.doc>> Your staff has produced a clear, well organized document that was easy to follow. Our comments are primarily refinements in areas where we have more detailed information about State Park lands than may have been easily available to you. Good luck in completing the final draft on time. For our records, please acknowledge receipt of this material when you have time. Thank you, Randy Person, Parks Planner Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission Phone: 360-902-8655 Fax: 360-586-0207 e-mail r<:indy,p~I$On@p<:iIk$'\I'v'<:i,gOY Snail mail PO Box 42650, Olympia, WA 98504 Street 1111 Israel Road SW, Olympia, WA 98504 6/17/2009 Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission Comments to Jefferson County Revised Draft Shoreline Master Program June 3, 2009 Release The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission is a major provider of public shoreline access in Jefferson County. The Commission manages five major parks and a number of smaller holdings in the county. These provide county residents with access to 2.6 miles of fresh water and 15 miles of salt water shorelands, supported by nearly 2,900 acres of upland park area. The mission of Washington State Parks meshes well with the Shoreline Management Act and Jefferson County's master program. State Parks public lands offer access to natural and cultural resource-based recreation. Putting visitors in touch with the outdoors while maintaining the character of the park setting is our bread and butter. State Parks' facilities and programs directly support Jefferson County's master program goals, especially 1 (Conservation), 3 (Historic, Archeological, Cultural, Scientific and Educational Resources), 4 (Public Access) and 5 (Recreation). The key requirement for ongoing effective management of State Park shorelands in the county is for appropriate maintenance and development activities to be "permitted uses." Overall, we find that the June 3, 2009 Revised Draft Shoreline Master Program satisfies those criteria. The table of uses on page 4-6 shows that such common park facilities as beach access structures, boat launches, docks, piers, floats, mooring buoys, and other development related to water-oriented recreation are permitted uses in the Natural and Conservancy designations most often applied to State Park land. With the full understanding that State Parks will obtain all required permits "subject to the policies and regulations of the Shoreline Master Program," we are encouraged to be able to begin permit applications as an accepted use. We noticed one apparent inconsistency in the program. On page 7-7, shoreline environment regulation 3.ii states that "a public dock, pier or float for recreational use man be allowed with a conditional use permit." The chart on page 4-6 indicates that this is an old condition, which should be updated on page 7-7 to reflect their status as permitted uses. There is one mapping convention that is confusing. In many areas, the upland shoreline areas are separated from Priority Aquatic (Marine) by a narrow strip of Priority Aquatic (Freshwater). We did not find a discussion of this relationship in the text, and wonder if it may be a mapping artifact. One special recreation use deserves mention: water trail campsites. Water trails in general, and the Cascadia Marine Trail in particular, are designed to encourage use of human powered craft such as kayaks and canoes. Overnight use requires shoreline camping areas at frequent intervals to provide safe havens in all conditions. Kayak camping is low impact, essentially water-borne backpacking. Because it is not practical to require transportation of boats and gear hundreds of feet inland, most water trail sites are sensitively developed near the shoreline. The main camp site is often screened from water view by vegetation. Washington State Parks has at least two sites under consideration for development, Kinney Point and Point Hannon. Other jurisdictions may also be considering other sites in the county. We recommend that water trail sites be specifically noted as permitted uses in the Natural and Conservancy designations. For more background on water trails, visit the Washington Water Trails Association website at www.wwta.org. To increase the accuracy of the Master Program, we would like to offer you more detailed information about several of the State Park shoreline areas. State Parks has a Classification and Management Planning (CAMP) process that many of our properties in Jefferson County have been through. The CAMP process involves extensive public input and detailed analysis of the site(s) involved. A thorough discussion of the process is available on the State Parks website, www.parks.wa.Qov.Onthehomepage.c1ick Planning and New Development. The Jefferson County Natural shoreline designation is for sites that "have minimally degraded functions and processes, or are relatively free of human influence." In the need to evaluate the entire county, staff may not have picked up details within some State Park areas that should be classed otherwise. In general, State Park CAMP land use designations of Natural and Resource Recreation are a good match for the county Natural designation, and our Recreation and Heritage should be matched with the county's Conservancy designation. Full results of the CAMP studies are available on line at the Planning and New Development web page. Under Completed Planning Projects, Dosewallips includes information on Dosewallips, Triton Cove, Pleasant Harbor, Toandos Tidelands, and Right Smart Cove. The Fort Flagler area plan includes Fort Flagler, Mystery Bay, Kinney Point, and Anderson Lake. The Old Fort Townsend planning process is currently under way. Under Current Planning Projects, Old Fort Townsend- Rothschild House, select Stage 3, document 2, Old Fort Townsend & Rothschild House CAMP Preliminary Recommendations.pdf. This information is available to you immediately. For your convenience, we will follow up with color prints and supporting notes for the CAMP land class maps. This should make it easier for county staff to consider our site specific suggestions. Overall, the county designations often fit well with our more detailed information. There are four sites where we recommend changes be considered: Anderson lake A portion of the park development includes previously managed agricultural land, now used for vehicle access, a boat launch, and day use. This section of the park does not meet the county's criteria for Natural designation. We recommend the portion of the park shown as Recreation on the CAMP map be designated Conservancy, with the rest of the lake shore appropriately remaining Natural. Fort Flagler As reflected in the CAMP Heritage and Recreation designations, this former military installation is anything but "free from human influence." Extensive public use of the beaches, fortifications, roads, and major piers are all features that lie within areas currently shown as Natural on the county map. The Conservancy designation is more appropriate for our ongoing management of this very popular park. Point Hannon Located at the tip of Hood Head, this parcel has not yet been evaluated through the CAMP process. However, early plans call for a designated water trail site, and Commission staff is currently working on permits for that development. If the county accepts our earlier comment to include water trail sites as permitted uses in the Natural designation, no changes are needed. If it makes more sense to have overnight uses in the Conservancy zone, then the shoreline designation at the State Parks ownership should be changed to that. As a water trails side note, it appears that the Conservancy designation at Kinney Point covers the small area we plan to use for a future water trail site. Shine Tidelands I Wolfe Property Located just north of the Hood Canal bridge, and extending well into Bywater Bay, these State Park managed uplands and tidelands provide over three miles of unbroken public access shoreline. The area roughly includes reach X north of the DOT ownership, and has also not been CAMPed yet. Most of the shoreline is appropriately designated Natural. However, the area immediately north of the bridge is the existing Shine Tidelands beach access area, located for many years directly along the riprap water edge. This area does not currently fit the Natural category. Plans are afoot through the Puget Sound Initiative for renovation and restoration of the area, but public access will still be part of the equation. In order to allow for the revised improvements, the area should be designated Conservancy. To accommodate future plans, the segment of Conservancy currently shown on the west shore of Bywater Bay should be extended to the NW corner of the bay. The large undeveloped parcels adjacent to this shoreline are planned for public access development in the future. Understanding that simple, low impact access to these popular shellfish beaches will be the prime attraction, we will, of course, treat the resource as gently as possible. Basic public access facilities may more appropriately occur in the Conservancy designation. We have also allowed shellfish enhancement on this beach, which may be less appropriate in the Natural designation. As these last two sites discussed are not available on line, we will include prints of our boundaries from our in-house GIS with our hard copy package for your convenience. Thank you for the opportunity to review the Jefferson County Shoreline Master Program. Washington State Parks looks forward to partnering with the county to continue to provide quality access to valuable shoreline resources. If you require any further information on State Park lands, policies, or plans, please contact us. To assist with savings required by the current fiscal situation, Washington State Parks is closing it's Puget Sound area regional office, and personnel and duties are being reassigned. During this reorganization period, the best contacts for local government issues such as review of GMA and shoreline program proposals are: Ryan Karlson 360-902-8650 rvan. karlson@parks.wa.qov Randy Person 360-902-8655 randv. person@parks.wa.gov Either may be reached by mail at PO Box 42650, Olympia, WA, 98504 Street address is 1111 Israel Road SW, Olympia, WA, 98504