The information presented in this web site concerns the
appeal of the Comprehensive Plan (CP) written by
San Juan County and adopted in 1998. Several individuals filed appeals as
either Petitioners, Intervenors or Amicus Curiae, collectively called petitioners in the documents that follow.
The appeal process began in late December 1998 and concluded in June 1999 with a
hearing (June 15,1999) in Friday Harbor, Washington.
The appeal process began with petitions alleging that the CP was non compliant
with Washington State's Growth Management Act
(GMA). Once accepted by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board
(WWGMHB), petitioners were required to file briefs. The briefs must be focussed
on specific legal issues as determined by the WWGMHB; those issues were gleaned
and culled by the WWGMHB from the petitions. The issues are directly related to
the GMA and were identified in a PreHearing Order issued by the WWGMHB. If
possible, the PreHearing Order will be posted on this web site. After the
petitioners filed their briefs, San Juan County could respond to the issues
raised by the petitioner's briefs with its reply, also called a brief. Should
they choose, the petitioners could then respond to the County's brief with a
reply brief. About a week after the reply briefs were due, the Hearing was held.
Presented below are the petitions, the briefs, and the reply briefs
that were filed by the petitioners as well as the response brief filed by San Juan
County. Also presented below is the Final Decision and Order (FDO) by the
WWGMHB, dated 21 July 1999.
A summary article regarding the hearing was published by Island Times on June 17 1999. This article is no longer available electronically.
Other petitioners and their documents, for example, the Town of Friday
Harbor, are not included here at this time. Information on briefs, the appeal
process, the CP and GMA
can be obtained from either the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board in
Olympia (360-664-8966, or via email at: wwgmhb@turbotek.net) or from the San Juan
County Prosecutor's Office in Friday Harbor, (360-378-4101)
This web site was created by the petitioners to provide full public information about the issues raised in the appeals. It is not provided by San Juan County. The formal documents presented are legal documents filed with the WWGMHB and thus conform to the standards required by this quasi-judicial body.
Minor adjustments to the documents have been made to make their transition from word processing to web format more user friendly. Footnotes and some graphics in the original documents have been lost in the conversion and may be added back in as time and reader interest coincide.
Feedback regarding the issues raised in these petitions may be directed to
petitioners, the editor of the Island Times (editor@islandtimes.com), the San
Juan County Board of County Commissioners (360-378-2898) or to the editor of
your local paper.
Land use planning is complicated, confusing and arcane. Comprehensive plans
are virtually incomprehensible. Petitioners believe that most citizens do not
know the consequences and implications of the comprehensive plan that governs
their community. The documents presented here do not necessarily spell out or
translate the problems as seen by the petitioners into normal english, as the documents are
fully oriented toward legal argument rather than basic explanation. As time
permits, petitioners will supplement the information here with documents that try to
explain the true meaning of the CP and why they chose to appeal. In the middle
of the battle, there wasn't time for contemplative inteviews with Walter
Cronkite. Hopefully that will come later.
An overview to the "density" issue was
presented as an op-ed piece in January 1995 and published in the Islands Weekly. It
galvanized public opinion at the time, helping to confirm the suspicions of the
petitioners that the citizens of San Juan County wish to solve this problem
before it is too late.
Note: some information intended for this web site may be unavailable in electronic form as of this moment. If a space for a document appears but there is no link, it means the document has not been forwarded to us for posting. Documents not shown will be posted on this site within a few hours of their electronic arrival.
The petitioners are as follows:
|
Petitioner |
Brief reason for appeal |
|
Lynn Bahrych |
Guest house policy and family size definition change |
|
John Campbell |
Affordable Housing |
|
Maile Johnson |
Resource Lands, Density |
|
Fred Klein |
Failure to alter 1979 densities; inconsistencies between land use descriptions and underlying densities |
|
Why I am appealing the comp plan email: joe AT doebay DOT net | Inconsistency between Vision Statement and underlying densities |
|
Petitions |
|
|
Lynn Bahrych |
Petition |
|
John Campbell |
Petition |
|
Maile Johnson |
Motion to Leave to Appear as Amicus Curiae |
|
Fred Klein |
Petition |
|
Joe Symons |
Memorandum in Support of Motion to Intervene |
|
Briefs |
|
|
Lynn Bahrych |
Brief |
|
John Campbell |
Brief |
|
Maile Johnson |
Brief |
|
Fred Klein |
Brief |
|
Joe Symons |
Note: The interested reader will note on page 42 of the Symons brief available above that SJC vociferously objected to the introduction of a chart showing the population growth data that SJC itself had supplied, in table form, on page 1 of the Appendix to the CP. SJC did not want this information displayed graphically, as it clearly demonstrated the dramatic change in population growth occuring in the county. The county was ordered to provide an "index" number to this graph, which they refused. SJC was subsequently chided publicly during a hearing for its refusal; the WWGMHB provided its own index number, officially validating that the chart had legal status.
|
Brief, San Juan County |
Brief |
|
Reply Briefs |
|
|
Lynn Bahrych |
Reply Brief |
|
John Campbell |
Reply Brief |
|
Maile Johnson |
Reply Brief |
|
Fred Klein |
Reply Brief |
|
Joe Symons |
|
Final Decision and Order, WWGMHB |
Brief |
|
Motion/Brief to Reconsider by SJC |
Brief |
|
Order on Reconsideration (from WWGMHB) |
Brief |
|
Comment on Order on Reconsideration (from WWGMHB) | Commentary on Order of Reconsideration |
There are solutions to the dilemma presented by these appeals. One is
offered here. Others exist, or can be created.
The idea is to imagine that the problem can be solved rather than imagine that we
are held hostage to old ways of thinking and doing and being. The real
questions
are: What do you want? and What are you willing to do about it?
Petitioners are committed to supporting conservation of the biologic, scenic and rural qualities of the San Juan Islands. We encourage the support of The San Juan Preservation Trust, a non-profit land trust helping preserve San Juan County by assisting landowners in dedicating conservation easements on their property.
Additional essays on growth issues related to
San Juan County are available for contemplation.
If you would like to contribute to the discussion on and of the future of
San Juan County, or have suggestions for improving this web site, please email your submissions or ideas to
"joe AT doebay DOT net"
© 2000 joe symons