Feb 23: Kitsap Alliance Dinner Meeting

Kitsap Alliance will be electing Board Members for 2012.  All voting members can cast their votes February 23^rd during our monthly dinner meeting at the #1 China Buffet, 3583 Wheaton Way, E Bremerton (across from McDonalds’).  The “all you can eat” buffet is $13.00 p/p.  Dinner starts at 5:30 PM.  Additionally there will be various speakers bringing members up to-date on land use issues tied into the counties new comprehensive plan effecting all property owners in Kitsap County and information on the Shoreline Master Program.

Kitsap moves to reduce the size of Urban Growth Areas

The Growth Management Hearings Board has demanded that Kitsap County reduce  the size of its Urban Growth Areas. The county is in the process of doing an Environmental Impact Study on alternative plans. What is missing in this discussion is the economic impact. Concentration of more people in urban areas will drive up the cost of housing, and significantly impact the property investments in the rest of the county. Make your opinions known, contact County Special Projects Coordinator: Erik Baker ebaker@co.kitsap.wa.us

Read more about Urban Growth Areas:

• Kitsap Alliance Testimony to County Commissioners
• Kitsap County UGA website
• Recent Kitsap Sun article

OH! The Plastic Bag Dilemma

There is so much effort placed on the lowly plastic bag it fades the real issues we should be talking about.  But Bainbridge Island has a realist with a few words to say.

Title 16 Requires 25ft Native Buffers in Rural County

I attended the Commissioners Monday night public meeting on February 13th and was very concerned about the passage of Title 16 and 17. Charlotte Garrido made it very clear that there will be 25ft native buffers required in Title 16. What else will you be required to give to the county but still pay taxes on? What part of your land do you really own?

County Commissioners consider moving regular business meetings to Monday mornings.

Public hearing set for February 13th meeting.

The Kitsap Board of County Commissioners is looking to move their twice-monthly business meetings to Monday mornings starting with the February 27th meeting. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled during the Board’s regular meeting Monday (2/13) night.

“We’re balancing the desire for public participation with cost containment while building greater flexibility and responsiveness in the process,” said Robert Gelder, Board Chair. The Board holds regular business meeting the second and fourth Monday of each month in the Commissioners’ chambers at the Administrative Building in Port Orchard.

Olympia wants to borrow money to stimulate the economy.

Say what?

Why are Kitsap planners ignoring citizen input on the SMP update?

Over the last two years, we have given county planners and Commissioners thoughtful and well-researched input on the Shoreline Master Program update, pointing out where they haven’t complied with the law and where their science is just plain wrong. (See the documents below.)

Our sources include highly qualified scientists, environmental engineers, and land use attorneys. All support their positions with full documentation. But our input has been studiously ignored. The county’s position in applying unwanted and unneeded controls on residential shoreline property appears to be that, “We’re just doing what we think the Department of Ecology wants”. They fail to recognize that the customer they need to give deference to is the property owners of the county not some government agency.

• Puget Sound Shoreline Science Review Flora 05-2010
• Shoreline Visioning comments 06-17-2010
  
• Comments to SMP Task Force draft goals document 06-20-2010
  
• Comments on Inventory and Characterization report 06-03-2010
• Questions re Draft Shoreline Inventory and Characterization Report 06-17-2010
• Comments to SMP Task Force revised draft goals document 07-22-2010
  
• Comments on draft SMP Scientific and Technical Information Policy 10-07-2010
• Letter to Mr. Keeton on SMP Task Force 12-2-2010
• Testimony of Bob Benze to the Planning Commission 12-07-2010
• Comments on SMP cumulative impacts approach 01-04-2011
• Comments on SMP Shoreline Designation System 01-21-2011
  
• Comments on Natural and Conservancy Designations 01-23-2011
  
• Flora critique of Brennan et al 02-2011
• Comments on SMP Communication 04-10-2011
  • County Response to April 10 Letter 05-10-2011
• Reynolds letter to BOCC re public participation 04-14-2011
  • Garrido response to Reynolds 07-28-2011
  • Reynolds reply to Garrido 09-20-2011
    • Reynolds reply to Garrido enclosures
• Comments on buffers 05-13-2011
• Inadequacies in Battelle Research 06-06-2011
• How do docks and floats impact salmon 08-16-2011
• Flora comments on Chapter 11 DOE Handbook 01-2012

A Great Start to a Successful Year!

Hello Kitsap Alliance,

You should feel very proud. As you know in the last few months we have been scoring against Agenda 21 in ways we never dreamed. My audiences are growing at each stop. Heritage has finally produced an article about it. The APA is now organizing boot camps to teach their people to fight us. We have achieved at last 54 cities getting out of ICLEI. We’ve been attacked in Mother Jones. the Washington Post, and yesterday The New York Times. What a year and it’s only 40 days old!

Thank you for your support,
Tom DeWeese, President
American Policy Center
americanpolicy.org