This is a developing story so this posting will change as details emerge. Today, the Common Sense Alliance (CSA) filed appeals with the Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) over the General, Wetlands, and Fish and Wildlife CAOs. In a separate move, the PJ Taggares Company, a property owner on Blakely Island, also filed an appeal. Both parties are represented by Sandy Mackie of Perkins Coie.
Unlike the Friends of the San Juans, both of the new appellants had vigorously urged the County not to pass the CAOs until the alleged substantial flaws could be remedied.
More as this story unfolds.
Well, we had to pass it to see what was in it. Now we'll find out!
ReplyDeleteI can see it now!
ReplyDelete"Upon extensive review, the GMBH has declined to rule upon San Juan County's CAO. We were unable to understand it well enough to make any sense out of it"
The CAO will be battled for the next 2 years- leaving us all in the dark. Honestly, I'm glad it passed so we could stop wasting a bunch of time at the county level. Hand it off to the lawyers. We should be able to trim at least 2 planning staff now!
ReplyDeleteIt is almost assured that these lawsuits will result in an injunction staying the effects of the CAO until resolution of the suits. Let me know when the results are in so I can start listening again.
I know... Apathy is bad behavior... But really- don't we have some real work to be done at the county?
2 years to sort it out?? How come you think resolution will come so quick??
ReplyDeleteAs far as cutting planners I believe CDPD just hired a new planner and new MRC member
The Critical Areas Full Employment Act of 2012. Workshops to teach you simple tricks about how you can cash in and get rich quick are underway. Space is limited. Get your seat now.
ReplyDeleteThis TH piece makes a subtle but very important point. That is, the FOSJ has already shown, in the record, that they are acting in bad faith.
Not so with the others ... This is important and will come up again.
Totally agree with post of 6:03. In addition to that comment, these appeals and the overall cost of this whole CAO madness is staggering.
ReplyDeleteSupporters of SOFJ; are you nuts? With a little humanity you could have saved a very large portion of this cost and got some meaningful environmental work done, and I don't mean regulation, I mean boots on the ground real environmental corrective work. Something productive, GOT IT!
And now you blow 40K+ backing two very questionable candidates only because you feel like you can own them?
Shame on you people.
ReplyDeleteRemember the guest house debacle? County had a vote, 73% of voters in favor. Family, friends (gee, they even put a taint on that word and it's meaning), people that need affordable place to stay. It would have helped visitors and residents. Now it's ADU'S and OPAL housing and no small scale B&B's. An side effect of the vortex, I think not, who was head of the "f's" when the guest houses turned into adu's, who was head of opal when they where a mere gleam? Who went from the head of a nonprofit to county council, to the state senate, the whole time claiming they where saving the planet. Who is now on the same fast track. Lovel is the sacrificial lamb, the Bullitt Foundation, with the help of the "f's" apparently want to buy some more politcal power in Olmypia. They all say Lisa is smart, but to what end? Call me crazy, but those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I hope I'm wrong, but...
When you have someone with ambitions to be a national player, who has already made moves in that direction ... as Lisa Byers has and continues to do ... run for a local office with strong political party support ...
ReplyDeleteI think I want to learn a lot more about that other side of Lisa Byers. Presentations, papers, conferences attended, invitations to speak ...
Lovel is damaged goods. Lisa has had the same job for 17 years. That means no diversity in work experience. A very narrow lens. She will bring her entire working experience and philosophy underlying it, to county government.
So the question is, and its a hard one, is OPAL really a hand up, a stepping stone for a young working family with a small child or to, to build stake and then move on to real home ownership from which they can build real equity and a nest egg?
Or, are they really just being captured in a program they cannot escape from, where OPAL is actually holding most of the real equity (in "trust" of course) while the residents are subjected to continuous and subtle propaganda intended to shape the permanent world view of 15% of the children on Orcas Island?
If Lisa is smart, well organized, passionate in her work and a true community organizer, these are serious questions worth asking.
Because the leadership of the other two land trusts on Lopez and San Juan are quite politically active in the current election.
Lovel Pratt was an executive director of the San Juan Home Trust. Lisa's old colleague Rhea Miller works for the Lopez Community Land Trust, and of course Rhea was a county commissioner for over 10 years
These are not casual relationships or coincidental connections between like minded organizations now deeply rooted into the fabric of our communities.
Oh, I almost forgot. The current executive director of the San Juan Hometrust is Nancy DeVaux ... yep you guessed it ... a former executive director of the Friends of the San Juans.
Family Friendly Friends. Affordable housing Friendly Friends. Small business Friendly Friends.
Cheap suit, shabby, Fraudulent Friends. Just connect the dots. It is exactly what it looks like. This is long range strategic planning that got underway in the early 1990s.
The reason the Ubercrats are coming out of their closet, is that they are really scared now that their carefully laid plans are being exposed and the whole network they have quietly built may suddenly now collapse. Decades of hard work. Millions of dollars quietly invested in this subterfuge and corruption. Now exposed.
San Juan County is for sale. Right now the price looks like its about 40K or so that ... yes ... could be better spent on boots on the ground conservation work but no ... better to buy the county government for purposes of control.
So we need to buff up a new leader. That would be Lisa Byers.
Do we really know her?
Um ... remember that brevity is a great charm of eloquence ...
ReplyDeleteEck,
ReplyDeleteTY
I will not deny, but possibly it might be reduced to a narrower Compass than it is; and that some Parts of it might be contracted: The way it has been writ in, by Catches, and many long Intervals of Interruption, being apt to cause some Repetitions. But to confess the Truth, I am now too lazy, or too busy to make it shorter.
ReplyDeleteOK, 7:20am had some good coffee. Good job.
ReplyDeleteI hope Ms. Byers will not be relied upon for ANYTHING! No thanks, go away, pleeeze.
Good outline by the candidate on Lopez, Brian McClerren, a couple of posts ago.
ReplyDeleteIt wold nice if other candidates were so clear.
Amazing, the guy running dead last (money wise) is the best of the bunch.