Ranker Bill Redefines Shoreline Buffers for Residences

Ranker shoreline bill passes key Senate committee
From the Senate Democratic Office

The Senate Natural Resources & Marine Waters Committee passed legislation Feb. 22 addressing how the state deals with residential units alongside shoreline buffers.

Currently, households along shorelines are more often finding themselves subject to policy hindering their ability to acquire insurance or face difficulties selling their home. Under local shoreline master programs along Washington’s coastline, if a shoreline buffer changes over time, residential structures already in existence could be considered a “nonconforming use.”

For residents, this can spell a high increase in premiums and can even affect the marketability of a home for sale on the market.

“This policy places a burden on our local shoreline property owners,” Said State Senator Kevin Ranker, D-San Juan, the committee chair and prime sponsor of the bill. “This session, we’re working to change the way Washington does business – and that has to start at the local level. We need to take what works and improve upon it and take what doesn’t and fix it.”

“This legislation simply removes the designation “nonconforming use” from residential shoreline evaluation. It has become necessary to recognize the serious problems this title creates, while maintaining existing ecological protections. Today we’re doing both,” Said Ranker.

According to Ranker, the bill would not affect any ecological and environmental protections found within any shoreline master program. “Our goal here is to streamline a policy that has proven itself harmful to families up and down Washington’s coastline – and to do so without environmental degradation. With this narrowly crafted legislation, we have achieved that goal.”

The bill passed out of committee unanimously.

Said Ranker, “This isn’t government reform. This is creating better government. This session, that’s a concept that both Democrats and Republicans should rally behind.”