Do you realize that our San Juan County Council’s proposed update to the existing Shoreline Master Plan removes the ban on oil pipelines, reduces protection of critical habitat for forage fish that juvenile salmon feed on, and fails to ban fish pens as nearby Island County has recently done?
And that all of this could be approved by our County Council in mid to late January without adequate explanation to the public it serves and without adequate opportunity for public input?
On Dec. 31, the undersigned submitted the following letter to the county council asking it to extend the SMP public input process. If you agree with this letter, please attend the 9 a.m. public access period at the Tuesday, Jan. 5 council meeting to speak on the subject and/or to show support for others who will ask the council to approve the letter’s request.
The more supporters present, the greater the probability the council will react favorably.
Alternatively, you can email the council at council@sanjuanco.com.
Letter to the San Juan County Council (With copy to Washington State Department of Ecology):
We respectfully request that San Juan County hold public meetings on the ferry-served islands no earlier than the second half of January where the proposed changes to the Shoreline Master Plan are described along with the rationale for the changes. We also ask the county council to hold at least one additional public hearing no earlier than Feb. 1 prior to adopting the SMP update.
These meetings are necessary because of the complexity of the SMP update, which includes several hundred pages of documents, and because more than two years have elapsed between the last Planning Commission hearings on the update and the council hearing on Nov. 30, a delay not contemplated when the original public participation plan was drafted (Resolution 10-2011). Providing the minimum required notice of the Nov. 30 hearing, and scheduling the review period for the documents during a time with two holidays, including Thanksgiving, did not give the public a reasonable opportunity to understand and participate in this comprehensive update.
We look forward to participating in these town-hall meetings, as well as at the final hearing.
Eric Adelberger, Sheryl Albritton, David Anderson, Mary Ann Anderson, David Dehlendorf, John Genuich, Shireene Hale, Ann Jarrell, Peter Kilpatrick, Kyle Loring, Louisa Nishitani, Lovel Pratt, Phebe Smith, Victor Smith, Billie Swalla, and Janet Thomas
