The Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce announced today that the San Juan County long-range planner Shireene Hale will be at the Senior Center Thursday morning to answer questions about proposed revisions to the Critical Area Ordinance in an informal setting.
Critical areas are identified as wetlands, fish and wildlife habitats, geologically hazardous areas, the critical aquifer recharge area (CARA) and frequently flooded areas. The county is required to revise all these areas as part of revising the county’s environmentally sensitive areas ordinance, adopted in 1998 with minor amendments made in 2005. The revised ordinance will be titled the Critical Areas Ordinance.
The group updating the ordinance meets twice a month. Representatives from the Planning Commission, the Association of Realtors, builders, the Marine Resource Committee, the Friends of the San Juans, a land-use attorney, farmers, and two members-at-large (Patty Miller, Orcas Island businesswoman and Ryan Drum from Waldron Island) sit on the county-wide CAO Review Committee which was formed in 2007 as part of the push to achieve county compliance with the Growth Management Act (GMA).
Hale, from the County Development and Planning Department, will be at the Senior Center from 9:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. For more information about the Critical Areas Ordinance go to https://www.sanjuanco.com/cdp/default.aspx?dept=cdp&listname=CAO
