August 25, 2015  Wendy Harris ACTION

Planning Commission Public Hearing/Critical Area Ordinance

The city is proposing some changes to the CAO as part of the GMA comp. plan update and there are some pressing issues, particularly with regard to wetlands and habitat conservation areas. This is our chance to tell the city that we want better protection of our critical areas.

Here [link is below] are the materials from the first public hearing on January 15th, which was the first time the public was advised about this project. Currently, the city is contending that they are not required to include the CAO as part of the Comp. Plan update and that is not really correct. It may not be a compliance issue, but it is certainly expected and written into the law as an example of the type of land use regulations are are considered part of the comp. plan update.

You will need to review all three sets of materials I have laid out to understand the process. This is really unacceptable. The city should be incorporating the prior history and the documents into the new material as the process moves forward.

http://www.cob.org/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=267&doctype=AGENDA

Read about the Planning Commission Public Hearing/Critical Area Ordinance on the Facebook event page here.

On the event page you will find numerous posts from Wendy to help with any public or written comments you may wish to make regarding the Critical Areas Ordinance.  There are also some posts on Noisy Waters Northewest regarding this topic.  Click the tags, at the bottom of this post to be taken to a page with articles related to those topics. Plan on attending the event at Bellingham City Hall, City Council Chambers, at 210 Lottie St., Bellingham, WA, to make your voice heard!  Remember developers and other monied interests, promoting projects like the Gateway Pacific Terminal, are giving their input to the Comprehensive Plan’s Critical Areas Ordinance review!