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Jeanie Orr
From:
Jeanie Orr
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 20094:00 PM
To: Michelle McConnell
Cc: AI Scalf; Stacie Hoskins; Jeanie Orr
Subject: FW: SLanglois SMP Reinstatement of Science-based Buffers
Attachments: SLanglois SMP support.doc
From: Google Documents [mailto:noreply@google.com] On Behalf Of Sslanglois@gmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:31 PM
To: #Long-Range Planning; rattemann@pugetsound.org; Sslanglois@gmail.com
Subject: SLanglois SMP Reinstatement of Science-based Buffers
Please accept these attached comments as part of the public hearing re:
Planning Commission shoreline master program (SMP)
Page I of 1
2J7 t7{
The Shoreline Master Program (SMP) needs to be revised to include strong environmental safeguards
for Jefferson County shorelines.
Thank you, Susan Langlois
6/1 7/2009
Susan Langlois
2304 Rosecrans St.
Port Townsend, W A 98368
June 17, 2009
Jefferson County
Board of County Commissioners (BOCC)
DCD Long-Range Planning
621 Sheridan Street,
Port Townsend, W A 98368
Re: Reinstatement of scientifically-based buffers and the environmental safeguards
proposed in the citizen committee's draft for the SMP
Dear Sirs:
Twenty years ago, last month, I sat on a Jefferson County beach contemplating whether
or not I should ask my husband, a nurse practitioner, to leave his job in Colorado, so that
I could be the project manager for an Area Agency on Aging, Fred Myers' grant. As
professionals, our salaries would have been considerably higher in other states and/or
urban areas, our costs of living and housing would be less in Colorado, and the
opportunities for advancement would be greater. However, I had spend several days in
Jefferson County and had seen lovely wooded habitats, exquisite shorelines, heard the
peeps of frogs, and enjoyed the taste of wild salmon and halibut. Public benefits that no
salary differential could encompass, no five acre plot of my own could contain. It was
the bounty of the natural resources that led us to decide that we should become part of
this community; the grant project was to be for three years, but we have continued to live
and work in Jefferson County for seventeen more years--buying property, paying taxes,
volunteering, dancing, making art, and living everyday trying to find balance.
I want to thank the Planning Commission and staff for their efforts in updating the
County's shoreline management plan.
However, my family and I are very distressed about the proposed environmental
rollbacks and the failure of the current plan to reinstate the necessary safeguards that
would protect shoreline habitat and water quality as new growth occurs. Comprehensive
plans designated the scientifically-based protection of fragile, environmental resources to
be of primary importance; because they are so consequential to all of us, so vital to the
health of all, they are deemed to be "critical".
We need the size of critical area buffers for Jefferson County shorelines to be based on
science. These buffers address critical concerns for our entire community such as:
reducing erosion and flooding of our homes, preventing chemicals from poisoning our
shellfish beds, keeping our beaches clean, and our salmon streams cool. Solutions can be
found to address concerns for the development of nonconforming lots.
Working with families around issues involving "aging in place" and the sixty-plus
population, parenting and childcare, and communicable diseases and public health, we
see protecting our shorelines as necessary for preserving the health, economy, and
viability of the entire community within our county.
While I appreciate the fears, concerns, and laudable intentions of the many property
owners, who see themselves as the best and most appropriate "stewards" of the land, I
believe our water-like our air-given their collective, life-giving necessity, must be
safeguarded as part of our social contract for the preservation of the "commons" for the
people and by people.
Ensuring that we protect water quality and shoreline habitat, by:
· requiring scientifically-based, adequate buffers,
· encouraging restoration of degraded shorelines,
· making sure water-dependent or water-oriented uses and single family
development are coordinated and compatible with protection of Puget Sound
water quality and habitat,
· adding safeguards for development of nonconforming lots, and
· preserving and enhancing public access by making sure that land-uses that
generate new demand for public access provide it, while mitigating for all
development impacts created,
should not threaten private property owners nor impede the reasonable use of their lands.
We need a plan that will protect the quality oflife we moved here to enjoy and will
preserve our reasons for remaining here to work, pay taxes, and participate in everyday
life. With the reinstatement of the safeguards of the the citizen committee's draft, we have
opportunity to be a part of the change we seek and to align our needs, principles, and our
actions as an entire and vital community.
Sincerely,