Greetings Shoreline Master Program (SMP) Interested Parties, Milestone Last week, the Board of County Commissioners considered the public comment received and took formal action by unanimous vote to finalize revisions to the proposed finfish aquaculture provisions and directed staff to proceed with preparing a final adopting ordinance. Staff will continue to strive for moving the SMP to final adoption as quickly as possible given existing workloads and departmental constraints. Press Coverage A recent newspaper article covered this important milestone but did not accurately represent the information staff provided; below is some clarification of what was published: • The County submitted the Locally Approved SMP (LA-SMP) to the state in March 2010 (not ‘November’); • WA Dept. of Ecology’s conditional approval of the LA-SMP was issued in January 2011 (not ‘February’) and included 26 required changes and 14 recommended changes on a broad range of SMP topics (not only the proposed finfish aquaculture prohibition); • The definition of ‘finfish aquaculture’ is not limited to ‘non-native species, such as Atlantic salmon…’ ; • Revisions were made to proposed policies and regulations; • There is no ‘required fencing’ in the proposed regulations. The proposed height limit applies to all ‘floating/hanging aquaculture structures and associated equipment’ and ‘hoists and similar structures’ – the revision is intended to reflect legal guidance; • Some revisions were intended to make the language more concise; • The four geographic areas where net pens could be proposed for siting are not all in the Port Townsend area. They include areas in the vicinity of Strait of Juan de Fuca, Glen Cove, Mats Mats Bay, and Port Ludlow. This email list will be kept informed of next steps – you may also check BoCC agendas online here. Regards, Michelle
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:19:40 +0000
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