General Overview of Problems With Critical Area Ordinance / Facebook post, Whatcom Hawk, Wendy Harris

council-linked-page-to-cao

10 hrs  February 22, 2017  Wendy Harris

Will the council approve a Critical Area Ordinance (CAO) that does not comply with the GMA? It is looking more and more likely. I am sick to my stomach thinking that after just one “general issues” work session, council will be ready to vote on the updated Critical Area Ordinance. It really did not help that few people participated, but how could they when there was no real training provided on such a technical issue? Perhaps if the CAO was not improperly separated from the Comp. Plan update, it would have been easier to obtain public input. Continue reading

What’s Riddled With More Holes Than Cheese? / Facebook post, Whatcom Hawk, Wendy Harris

16.16.720 cao

Excerpt from Whatcom County, WWC 16.16 Critical Areas Regulations, Draft Adopted by Whatcom County Planning Commission 06-09-2016.  Click on graphic to access document.

June 13 at 5:38am  June 13, 2016  Wendy Harris

What’s Riddled With More Holes Than Cheese?

All the exemptions, exceptions, conditional and allowed activities inside critical area habitat conservation areas (The CAO [Critical Areas Ordinance]).

You may not realize all the activities that are allowed when we are protecting biodiversity because they are found in two locations, the specific Article provisions for that type of critical area, and in Article 2, which applies generally to all critical areas. Continue reading

How The Staff Rigged the County CARA Provisions / Facebook post, Whatcom Hawk, Wendy Harris

8 15 cao cac

Link to audio recording of the Whatcom County Critical Areas Citizen’s Advisory Committee meeting for August 5, 2015

7 hrs  March 5, 2016  Wendy Harris

http://wa-whatcomcounty.civicplus.com/…/Critical-Areas-Citi…

On 8-5-15, the citizen advisory committee for the CAO reviewed the CARA (critical area aquifer recharge area) provisions. There is an audio recording. It starts at minute 30 and is concluded in minute 33.30. Three and a half minutes in total to discuss the CARA section.. one of 5 types of CARAs in the CAO. Continue reading