When it comes to the state's guidelines for the protection and preservation of ecologically sensitive lands, Medical Lake city planner Glenn Scholten said a lot has changed in the last 20 years.
By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
When it comes to the state's guidelines for the protection and preservation of ecologically sensitive lands, Medical Lake city planner Glenn Scholten said a lot has changed in the last 20 years.
But the city's existing ordinance on preserving these sensitive land types, particularly wetlands, hasn't changed in at least that long. Officials recently learned their ordinance needed updating to its preservation guidelines to reflect the new requirements under the state Department of Ecology. The DOE previously rejected a plat application for a new housing development in the city on acreage that contained registered wetlands.
“They weren't pleased with our ordinance as it is, and asked that it be amended drastically because after 20 years of working with critical areas in the state, they've come up with a new way of rating and classifying wetlands,” Scholten explained to the Medical Lake Planning Commission last Thursday.
DOE's recommendation came at an opportune time, with commissioners deciding last month to update a series of chapters in the city comprehensive plan, some of which hadn't been revised since their adoption a decade or more earlier.
Under the new way of rating and classifying critical areas, Scholten said, the state bases its ratings on rating systems submitted by each city, which scores their own lands' functions and values.
Scholten presented commissioners with a draft of the city's resource lands and crucial areas preservation chapter, marked up with new DOE-recommended guidelines shown in red and magenta.
Commissioner Mark Hudson asked why DOE was recommending so many changes at this time.
“In 20 years time, priorities have changed in terms of wetland classification. [DOE] has found differences depending on if it's east or west, differences in value, size and type. That led to the new rating system by which the state categorizes wetlands,” Scholten said. Hudson asked how Scholten decided which parts of the chapter to update, and which to leave the same.
Scholten said he revised the chapter to be in compliance with new state law that will allow the city to get the state's “write-off,” or approval, on future permit applications and avoid projects being rejected, possibly limiting future growth for the city.
Not all members of the commission were present to discuss changes. Although Scholten said there's no set deadline from the state to revise the ordinance, commissioners agreed to at least start revisions for the time being.
The three present commissioners discussed red sections in the first 12 pages of the revised chapter, approving some new definitions, including “best available science,” which means current scientific information used in the process to designate protect or restore critical areas.
Also approved was a more formalized process for preparing critical area reports, which now use the state's Wetlands Identification and Delineation Manual, formerly the 1989 Federal Manual for Identifying and Delineation Jurisdictional Wetlands.
Also updated and approved were some new standards that will apply to development activities in or near fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas. The new standards were changed to be more consistent with location-specific wildlife habitats and species as applicable to state and federal regulations, and in accordance with requirements of critical area classifications.
The commission will continue updates to the critical areas chapter at their regular meeting next month, at which time they hope the rest of the commission will be present for discussion.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
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