The city of Anacortes lacks an ordinance, mandated by the Washington State Growth Management Act, to protect critical areas. These "critical areas" include wetlands, aquifer-recharge areas, frequently-flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, and fish and wildlife habitat.
Evergreen Islands, in cooperation with 1000 Friends of Washington and Skagit Audubon, filed a "failure to adopt" appeal to the state growth management hearings board after we discovered that Anacortes did not have the required CA ordinance. The city quickly passed an interim ordinance, but it simply incorporated existing municipal codes under one chapter (new chapter 17.70). This ordinance is clearly insufficient, as it affords no new protections, and existing protections are meager and insubstantial. Learn more at the Evergreen Islands Critical Areas website.
Testimony before the Anacortes City Council
Anacortes, Washington
July 7, 2003
-AS PREPARED-
Each year for the past six years, I have been away at school in another state or another country for nine months at a time. Each year when I return, I see more wildlife habitat destroyed, more houses built in precarious positions on slippery slopes, and more opportunities to build livable communities missed. People who are here every day may not notice the gradual erosion of our critical areas and quality of life. But I do. Let's take immediate steps to reverse that trend, by enacting smart, comprehensive policies for smart growth.
This interim ordinance gives the city a Critical Areas Ordinance in name only. The interim ordinance is four pages long. Yes, it incorporates many pages of material from elsewhere in the city code. The state's model CA ordinance is over 150 pages, and its length is a virtue, not a vice. It is dedicated to critical areas - defining, protecting, monitoring, and inspecting them. The current ordinances are simply not adequate to do the job the state has instructed us to do.
This is not about tree-hugging. This is not even just about protecting fish and wildlife. This is about helping people and our community grow smartly. It is about protecting aquifers and the wells that people not served by city water depend on. It is about preventing the destruction of homes due to erosion, and property damage due to flooding or seismic events. To some degree, it is even about preventing the loss of life, but mainly it is about maintaining and enhancing our quality of life here in Anacortes.
We need appropriate buffers based on the best science around Ship Harbor. We need to prevent the pollution of Fidalgo Bay. We need automatic protection of places like the March Point Heronry - which should have been protected through appropriate policies and procedures, instead of requiring an ad hoc solution. Ad hoc solutions result in litigation and controversy which constitute a deadweight social loss that ought to be avoided.
We need to set aside this interim ordinance and really do a job crafting a comprehensive ordinance, based on the state's model. We need an ordinance that defines critical areas in all five categories. But mostly, we need a continual commitment from the city council to take the steps we know to be right and necessary to protect our community and its quality of life. Because if we have that commitment, I am convinced we can accomplish our task. Thank you.