Public Comments sought for the New Draft Shoreline Management Plan

Posted on June 19th, 2009 by Al Lorenz

On Wednesday, I was able to go to the Chelan Planning Commission’s workshop on the new draft Shoreline Managment Plan, but did not have a copy of the plan to view during the discussion. Today, the draft is available in its 358 pages of glory!  For most of us, the first 8 sections are the pertinent ones since most of the stuff after that is specific to individual cities.  That leaves you with only 183 pages to review carefully.  This is important to review carefully if you care about building anything near any waterway, clean water, access to shorelines, access to waterways, private property rights, public rights and I could go on and on.

From Wednesday’s discussion, there are many changes from the previous preliminary draft that came out.  Some are great, like easing some of the maintenance restrictions on docks, etc.  But, there are still provisions for public access requirement across private developments.  Apparently Washington’s Shorelines Managment Act has requirements that are driving some of the more controversial sections of the local Shoreline Management Plan update.  Also, attempts were made to reference appropriate Washington Administrative Code (WAC) and Revised Code of Washington (RCW) that are the rules that the plan is required to comply with.  So, you should be able to compare what the rule requires to what has been written.

Now, the draft Shoreline Managment Plan is available.  I will have further comments next week when I’ve spent some time with it.  The county would like to have all comments by August 7th.

A hard copy of the Draft SMP will also be available (starting next week) to look through at each City Hall (Cashmere, Chelan, Entiat, Leavenworth, and Wenatchee), Chelan County Natural Resource Department, Chelan County Community Development Department, and the North Central Washington Library in Wenatchee.   

How to submit comments:

  • Comments can either be submitted electronically (e-mail) or through the postal mail (see addresses below)
  • Comments referencing the section (not the page) of the document first would be extremely helpful
    For Example: Section 4.4.2.1.a; then comment.

Submit comments to:

Erin Fonville
SMP Project Manager/
Natural Resource Specialist
Chelan County Natural Resource Department
316 Washington St. Suite 401
Wenatchee, WA 98801
E-mail:  erin.fonville@co.chelan.wa.us

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