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On Wednesday, Jan. 15, the County Council will hold a public hearing and possibly take a final vote on certain proposed alterations to how the county protects wetlands in its development regulations.
The changes have raised formal objections from officials with the state Department of Ecology and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The meeting will be at 10:30 a.m. in the council chambers on the eighth floor of the County Campus, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett and also people can participate over Zoom. The Zoom link is https://zoom.us/j/94846850772
Opponents have called on increasing wetland buffers, not reducing them.
The amendments put forward by County Council members Jared Mead and Nate Nehring are receiving the most criticism. Their amendments lower the minimum distance that development is allowed near wetland buffers under certain circumstances, and restore an incentive to develop closer to wetlands which county planners intend to remove.
County planners wrote rules to maintain a wetland buffer of no less than 75 percent of the standard required buffer width. The council members’ amended version lowers the buffer to no less than 50 percent of the standard required width.
In a narrative, Mead and Nehring write their reasons for these adjustments are to avoid pressure to expand existing Urban Growth Areas (UGAs), address housing affordability, and maintain harmony for development within existing UGAs.
The rules on critical areas are being revised under the wider 10-year Comprehensive Plan update. It’s one of the remaining pieces straggling from that update; most elements have already been approved ahead of the county’s Dec. 31, 2024 deadline.
