News

Residents question new regulations

By Emily Keller

 

Ginette Toskey thinks she and her husband, George, have done their fair share to protect Lake Sammamish. The Toskeys, who live along the lake, maintain a shoreline buffer that runs between 20 and 50 feet inland onto their property. Now city planners are proposing additional regulations that the Toskeys and some of their neighbors worry will be burdensome and expensive.

The proposal would change the environmental designations of properties along Beaver and Pine lakes and Lake Sammamish, impacting what new uses and developments are allowed on lakeside properties. The new designations, if approved, will become part of the Shoreline Master Program the city is drafting to protect water quality and promote public access for lakes larger than 20 acres in accordance with state law. The plan is due by 2009.

Maren Van Nostrand, an environmental planner for the city, said the proposed changes are minor. "The updates are both a reflection of changes that have taken place as well as just a refining of what we inherited from King County," said Van Nostrand.

That is not enough to appease worried residents, some of whom say they are being penalized for storm water runoff that begins elsewhere in the city and then runs through their property into the lake.

"Why should we be the only people held responsible for saving Lake Sammamish?" Ginette Toskey asked the city's Planning Commission at a May 1 meeting. "Water running off properties on the plateau is much more damaging to the quality of the water in Lake Sammamish because it collects excess fertilizer from lawns, contaminants from the streets, and garbage along the roadways before dumping as storm water into the lake."

Some Lake Sammamish residents are worried that the proposal to change their property designations from Urban Conservancy to Shoreline Residential would turn home repairs into a bureaucratic nightmare. The existing designation is intended to protect and restore ecological functions in relatively undeveloped areas while the new one would introduce more stringent development standards for things like density, minimum frontage width, setbacks, lot coverage and buffers that are assigned to residential neighborhoods.

In addition to changing environmental designations, the proposed regulations would require property owners along Pine and Beaver lakes to have a 45 -foot buffer and 5 -foot setback like Lake Sammamish residents, revising a 50 -foot building setback requirement in the state's Critical Areas Ordinance. They would also be required to retain at least 80 percent of trees when applying for tree removal permits or making additions to their homes, a sharp increase from the current 25 percent requirement. Some planning commissioners said that requirement might be too high.

"I think it's great to have 80 percent retention," said commissioner Richard Amidei. "I'm just concerned that we're setting the bar too high, that it's not going to be practical in non -conforming [lots]."

The proposed regulations would limit dock length on all three lakes to the average length of the two nearest docks on either side and could introduce new standards for repair. Docks are currently allowed be up to 600 feet as long as they do not come within 200 feet of another dock.

Margaret Clancy, a senior project manager for consultant ESA Adolfson, said planners are trying to alter dock requirements to push homeowners to use non -toxic materials that have minimal impact on water quality instead of using treated wood, but stressed that the regulations will only apply to significant maintenance projects or construction work.

"Maintenance is generally not affected by the designations at all," Clancy said an April 30 open house for affected property owners. "Most maintenance activities are not going to [require] a permit under the Shoreline Master Program, but that depends what you consider maintenance."

Bernard Olhausen, who lives along Pine Lake, said he is concerned that the designation proposed for his property seems arbitrary because it is not being applied to a smaller lake nearby called Laughing Jacobs Lake. "I'm all for regulations that keep Pine Lake a swim -able, boat -able and fish -able lake. I would be concerned if my property would be designated Urban Conservancy and similarly situated properties would be designated Shoreline Residential," he said.

Residents are also concerned that the new regulations, if approved, could make it more difficult for property owners to rebuild their homes in the case of an earthquake, fire or flood that causes significant destruction, ushering in a new standard.


ESA Adolfson is proposing to change most Conservancy properties to Urban Conservancy, turn most Rural properties into Shoreline Residential and eliminate the Aquatic designation. They also propose to assign the Natural designation, which is used to protect areas that are ecologically intact and relatively free of human influence, to the Beaver Lake Preserve shoreline area.

Seventy -four private property owners would be impacted by the changes, said Van Nostrand.

The Planning Commission will hold its final discussion on the Shoreline Plan's draft designations, policies and regulations at 6:30 p.m. June 5 before holding official public hearings in July. Planners said the proposal is subject to revision until then.

The proposal will go through an environmental review and require approval by the City Council and then the state's Department of Ecology before it takes effect. The commission's next meeting takes place at 6:30 p.m. May 15 at City Hall.

For more information visit http://www.ci.sammamish.wa.us/SMP.aspx#Contact.

Reporter Emily Keller can be reached at 392 -6434, ext. 242, or ekeller@isspress.com.