In the Matter of Appeals of a Determination of Non-Significance for Westcott/Garrison Bay Critical Marine Habitat Management Area Designation and Associated Watershed Management Plan. Garrison Bay Neighbors Association, and Bradford G. Augustine, Appellants, v. San Juan County, and Friends of the San Juans, Respondents.

HE 31-99     STIPULATION AND ORDER OF DISMISSAL

Come now the Appellants, Garrison Bay Neighbors Association, and Respondent San Juan County, and stipulate to the following:

1. The Westcott/Garrison Bay MHMA Recommended Management Strategies are based on a San Juan County Planning Department analysis of the impacts of land and shoreline uses and activities and, in the opinion of that department, the extent to which those impacts are not addressed or are addressed inadequately in the application of existing county (and some state) policies and regulations. Some strategies were designed to clarify the intent of an existing policy or code, others to provide better information for more effective implementation of the code, or to provide more predictability in project decisions.

2. The adoption of the proposed UDC amendments contained in "Westcott-Garrison Bay Marine Habitat Management Area Watershed Management Plan/ Recommended Management Strategies" would indicate an intention by the County to consider amending the UDC to address impacts to the watershed through the normal public process for county code amendments.

3. Many of the Plan's strategies cannot be imposed without being subject to
legislative action, with required public review and technical analysis, to amend the UDC. The current County proposal does not take that step. A specific amendment to the UDC would be necessary to implement any proposed Regulatory Management Strategy and would be subject to a new SEPA review for code amendment, except that strategies enforcing or applying existing regulations will not require code amendment. Where new or modified regulation is indicated for consideration, required public review and amendment process must occur before the strategy may be implemented. During the public review and amendment process, the strategies may be refined to address impacts that are not addressed adequately by existing state or county regulations.

4. San Juan County will not take legislative action to amend or modify the County Comprehensive Plan, Shoreline Master Program, or Unified Development Code to implement the new regulations proposed under the Westcott/Garrison Bay Critical Marine Habitat Management Area Designation and/or associated Watershed Management Plan (including the Recommended Management Strategies as they now exist or are subsequently refined) without required public review and technical analysis and without issuing a new SEPA threshold determination(s) separate from the June 23, 1999, DNS at issue in HE 31-99 (which new threshold determination(s) would be appealable to the Hearing Examiner). This will not affect the implementation of existing policies and regulations, or the adoption of the Westcott/Garrison Bay MHMA designation itself.

5. When a specific definition is proposed for code adoption, a new SEPA threshold determination will occur.

6. Based on the foregoing, appellants Garrison Bay Neighbors Association and Bradford G. Augustine, hereby agree to dismiss this appeal.

Dated this 24th day of September, l999.

/s/
Stephanie Johnson O'Day, for
Garrison Bay Neighbors Assoc.

/s/
Laura Arnold, Director
San Juan County Planning Dept.

/s/
Peter Eglick, for Friends of
The San Juans

/s/
Bradford G. Augustine

ORDERED that the above referenced SEPA appeals initiated by the Garrison Bay Neighbors Association and Bradford G. Augustine are dismissed.

/s/
Wick Dufford, Hearing Examiner