Common Sense Alliance

DVD of Attorney Panel Discussion (below) on sale for $10.00, which is CSA's cost to produce and mail to you.  Please send your money and your mailing address to us at P.O. Box 1249, Friday Harbor, WA 98250, and we will return a DVD to you.  Questions?  Contact us (see the tool bar).  Thank you.

My wife and I came to San Juan Island in 2009 to enjoy the wonderful ambience of these Islands. Like many friends and neighbors, we are environmentally oriented, I having retired from 40 years of ocean technology work, and she a long career in public relations. We both are alarmed by San Juan County’s recent CAO developments and public disclosures --her from a public information perspective, and I from an ocean sciences point of view. 

We are not directly affected, but I want to speak out as a county taxpayer and home owner in the cause of clarity and transparency. Our fellow taxpayers and residents need the real facts to better judge the truth and value of this “environmentally necessitated” county initiative against the cost and economic risk to all our communities and their residents. 

Here’s the main issue: the current CAO is based on facts that do not apply to the San Juan Islands and missing the facts that do. My comments are directed toward the centerpiece of the CAO plan – Imposing deep setbacks and buffer zones to protect and restore our marine environment.

Dave Hyde, a San Juan Island resident (see the article above), and Ed Kilduff, a Lopez Island resident, have collaborated in this review and cite a substantial body of scientific literature that is seemingly missing in the current Best Available Science.  Their work was shown at the October 11th CSA Town Hall Meeting.  Both Mr. Hyde and Mr. Kilduff have given their permission for CSA to publish their work which is available in PDF format at this link.  San Juan Archipelago Water Quality & CAO-SMP

 On September 17, 2011, the San Juan REALTORS hosted a workshop to help inform property owners about the County's Shoreline Master Program Update.  The guest speaker was Sandy Mackie, a land use attorney with extensive experience in working with the Growth Management Act (GMA), the Shorelines Management Act (SMA) and other environmental topics related regarding land use, shoreline and critical areas issues.  Sandy's PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded from the "Library Documents" of this homepage under "Shorelines & You~ SJC REALTORS."

·               To consolidate code enforcement for land use, shoreline, and building code

·               Authority well beyond current law (e.g., any condition it deems unsafe)

·               Authority to impose fines w/o court approval (like traffic tickets, much steeper)

·               Enhanced “Right of Entry” authority (e.g., without even asking )

·               To shift burden of proof in code enforcement matters to landowners

·                “Source of revenue to support code enforcement activities”