Council Plans Two Days of Talks on Critical Areas

By Stan Matthews
County Communications Program Manager

The San Juan County Council has scheduled two additional workshops on updates to the County’s Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) – the set of regulations designed to preserve areas vital to ecological functions and to the protection of public health, safety and welfare.

The Council has scheduled workshop sessions on June 13^th and 14^th, to accept and consider recommendations for updates to existing Critical Areas regulations from scientists, County planning staff, agencies and the general public. Scientists involved in the review of the studies included in the County’s BAS Synthesis document will participate in those discussions by conference call. All interested individuals, organizations, tribal entities, and agencies are encouraged to submit written recommendations on the regulations prior to the workshops, or to attend and provide input during the workshops.  At the conclusion of the workshops, the Council is expected to provide policy-level guidance to County staff on what they want to see in the revised regulations.

The June workshops will follow the May 16-17 workshops in which the Council will review and take public input on the latest draft of the “Best Available Science” Synthesis. The state requires Counties to consider the Best Available Science concerning the protection of critical areas as it updates its CAO.

Schedules and agendas for the workshops are available on the County’s online calendar: https://sanjuanco.com/calendar.aspx. Additional information is available on the Critical Area Update home page at: https://sanjuanco.com/cao.