Tonight’s Husum/BZ Corner land use hearing at the White Salmon Pioneer Center has been drawing lots of interest from members of the public who contacted The Enterprise by telephone and e-mail last week with requests to post an April 9 story about the hearing on its Web site.
During tonight’s hearing, which starts at 6:30, the Klickitat County Board of Commissioners will take testimony concerning possible revisions to its 2012 Husum/BZ Corner Sub-Area Plan and Zoning Update.
Among the bits of factual information the County Board may hear during the land use hearing is that five short plats have created 13 lots in the Husum/BZ Corner Planning Area since the adoption of new zoning in June 2012.
The County Board also may learn that the cultural resource survey requirement it approved through a settlement agreement with the Yakama Nation in 2011 has not been applied to any land use proposal in the planning area to date. The county reached the agreement with the Yakamas to resolve the nation’s appeal of the county’s environmental determination on its then-proposed zoning update.
Of the five short plats mentioned above, only two had to conduct cultural resource surveys, but not because of the settlement agreement that a handful of vocal landowners in the lower White Salmon River valley — led by former county commissioner Don Struck, current planning commissioner Rick Graves, and former planning commissioner Jerry Smith — want the County Board to repeal or revise on the grounds it has changed the intent of the 2012 land use plan and zoning update.
County Planning Director Curt Dreyer said the proponents of those two short plats had to do cultural resource surveys as part of their compliance with the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).
The regulations that implement the settlement agreement can be found at Chapter 19.02 of the County Code. It applies to certain but unspecified tracts adjacent to the White Salmon River in the Husum area.
According to Dreyer, the Yaka-mas have appealed only one land use application in the lower valley since June 2012. On Aug. 1, 2014, they challenged the county’s mitigated SEPA determination for a conditional use project off Fordyce Road — an ecotourism destination named the White Salmon Eco-Lodge — because of potential impacts to the river, not because of cultural resources. (The proponent subsequently withdrew its conditional use permit application.)
“We are concerned about the impact of any development within the riparian area on a fish-bearing perennial stream, and shoreline of statewide significance,” wrote Thomas Zielman, attorney for the nation.
In conclusion to his three-page appeal, Zielman noted, “In general, Klickitat County should not approve any land use applications in this area until the pending litigation regarding the Husum/BZ Corner Sub-Area Plan Update, which is currently before the Washington Court of Appeals, is resolved.”
The county’s 2012 Husum/BZ update currently is being reviewed by the state Court of Appeals, District 2, to determine if the process that produced it complied with state planning laws and if certain zoning granted by the plan complies with the state constitution.
County Prosecutor David Quesnel and Ralph Bloemers, attorney for plaintiffs Friends of the White Salmon River, said a ruling in the case could come as early as this summer or as late as this fall.
A three-judge panel from the appeals court based in Tacoma held a hearing in the matter — cross appeals by both parties, seeking favorable judgments — on March 30 in Vancouver. The parties filed their cross appeals in 2013.
Dreyer said County Commissioners Rex Johnston (R-White Salmon), David Sauter (R-Lyle), and Jim Sizemore (R-Centerville) will consider testimony received at the April 23 hearing prior to making any decisions.
“If the testimony supports the objectives of the current plan and zoning, the board may take no action or possibly revise,” Dreyer told The Enterprise on April 7.
Dreyer said the hearing is not precedent-setting in that past boards revisited prior zoning and plan updates in the Dallesport and Husum/BZ sub-areas “within relatively short times after adoption.”
He also noted that the current County Board re-adopted a ban on marijuana-related businesses in unincorporated areas last October within a few months of letting the prior moratorium lapse.
The history of planning in the Husum/BZ Sub-Area is murky, at best. No accurate records exist on how many lots were created in the sub-area between enactment of the 1995 update and the 2012 update.
“According to Don Struck and others, previous plans were appealed and/or rescinded in 1995, 1998, 2000, 2005, and 2007, which, if true, complicates the question of how many lots were created under each iteration of plan update/review/repeal,” Dreyer said.
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