[Capr-announce] FW: ACTION ALERT: URGE STATE SENATORS TO PASS PROTECTION OF SHORELINE USES

Thu Feb 18 22:16:46 PST 2010

To CAPR Supporters,

One of the largest property rights fights happening in Washington currently
has to do with required local updates of Shorelines Management Plans.  The
Washington House of Representatives has passed Engrossed House Bill 1653.
While not perfect, this bill would provide near term protection for
shoreline property uses and provide protection from the Department of
Ecology's "Interim Guidance" to local governments.  Please see the message
below from the Farm Bureau for more information.  This bill is now before
the Senate and deserves our support.  Please contact your senators with the
simple message "Support Engrossed House Bill 1653".  You don't need to write
more than that.  You can find contact information for your senators at
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx .  It's quick and easy.

This is an important issue even for those of us who don't own shoreline
property.  Please take a few minutes now to support property rights against
those who will take them from us!

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c&ologo

ACTION ALERT: URGE STATE SENATORS TO PASS PROTECTION OF SHORELINE USES  

REVISED Bill Provides Protection from Ecology's Interim Guidance

HB 1653 has been REVISED to include language that protects existing uses and
activities in shoreline areas. The bill is now known as ENGROSSED House Bill
1653.

The bill must be passed to provide protection from critical area ordinances
interfering with legally existing uses and structures.

The old bill has been struck - it is gone.  What we have now is a negotiated
replacement that protects legally existing uses and activities and even
provides a path to modify or redevelop those legally existing uses and
activities. New uses and structures are not prohibited by the legislation.

Please contact your state Senator and ask him or her to vote to PASS
ENGROSSED House Bill 1653 as amended and passed by the House.

<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103064570073&s=714&e=001YnXTWaRHeiExhhyzQ-O0J
heYckdUR4KhmJChPyobbl_QwcHWqVV1pwtXvv6JUpyLZTNvUuWYfrHhG78kO9_Ls836afK3VHe1l
VoqDvnXIn-obSpExK4wZNEII9bfB3wNVDBtv7j1QnEK3r14VdpqLQ==> Go to Washington
Farm Bureau's Action Center to send a message today.

Background:

The Dept. of Ecology recently issued "guidance" to local governments that
they have the option to reach into shoreline jurisdiction with their
critical areas ordinances until the time that their shoreline master
programs (SMP) are updated and approved by Ecology.

The Attorney General then issued an opinion saying that Ecology has the
authority to issue that guidance.  The AG reasoned that a 4-1-4 Supreme
Court ruling, followed by two Court of Appeals cases that appear to be in
conflict, left the situation unclear and that the guidance was acceptable.

There is no dispute that there will be distinct authority between the SMA
(shoreline management act) and GMA (growth management act) once the local
government SMP is updated and approved. The approval of the SMP by Ecology
is a function of existing law.

Some counties are already there, having recently updated their SMPs.

In the past, local governments have adopted regulations and buffers that
have left existing uses and activities as "nonconforming" uses.  That
designation immediately damages the use and value of the property.

If your "nonconforming" building burns down, you can't replace it. If you
change your "nonconforming" use, you might lose the ability to have any use
at all. And you certainly could not make significant modifications or
redevelopments of those "nonconforming" uses.

The bottom line is this: The Ecology guidance, backed by the Attorney
General Opinion, has left property owners unprotected from local governments
that would choose to regulate in the shoreline areas via their critical
areas ordinances (GMA).

WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN!  That's why we must PASS ENGROSSED House
Bill 1653 as amended and passed by the House.

Washington Farm Bureau, Washington Association of Realtors, the Association
of Washington Business and others who believe in property rights and
protecting business have negotiated language that protects existing uses and
activities from these interim ordinances.  Here is the language:

(c)(i) Until the department of ecology approves a master program or segment
of a master program as provided in (b) of this subsection, a use or
structure legally located within shorelines of the state that was
established or vested on or before the effective date of the local
government's development regulations to protect critical areas may continue
as a conforming use and may be redeveloped or modified if:

(A) The redevelopment or modification is consistent with the local
government's master program; and (B) the local government determines that
the proposed redevelopment or modification will result in no net loss of
shoreline ecological functions. The local government may waive this
requirement if the redevelopment or modification is consistent with the
master program and the local government's development regulations to protect
critical areas.

(ii) For purposes of this subsection (3)(c), an agricultural activity that
does not expand the area being used for the agricultural activity is not a
redevelopment or modification. "Agricultural activity," as used in this
subsection (3)(c), has the same meaning as defined in RCW 90.58.065.

This language not only protects legally existing uses and activities, but
allows an option to modify or redevelop those uses and activities.  

Neither of those protections exists for property owners if Engrossed HB 1653
AS PASSED BY THE HOUSE does not pass the Senate.

Many people have reacted to the language in the original HB 1653 (and SB
5726).

Those bills are dead, in part because Washington Farm Bureau, the Realtors,
and AWB led the charge to kill those bills in 2009.  The language in those
bills was totally unacceptable - that's why the striking amendment was
adopted this year by the House.

A striking amendment REPLACES the previous bill.  It reads: "Strike
everything after the enacting clause and insert the following..."

That's what we did! We "struck" the bad bill and replaced it with something
that protects the right of use, the value, and the ability to modify,
legally existing uses and activities on private property in the shoreline
areas.

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