Ecology OKs Pateros Shoreline Program (USA)

Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) Director Ted Sturdevant has approved the city of Pateros’s comprehensive update to its shoreline master program. Pateros’s program will become part of Okanogan County’s shoreline regulations and the state’s overall shoreline master program (SMP).

Pateros’s updated shoreline program will protect uses, development, restoration and water quality of the city’s shorelines at the mouth of the Methow River and along the Columbia River. It combines new shoreline development ordinances and related permitting requirements with local plans for future shoreline development and preservation.

Pateros is the second city in Okanogan County to complete its part of the regional shoreline program update. Plans continue to be finalized by the county and in the cities of Brewster, Okanogan, Omak, Oroville, Tonasket and Winthrop.

Shoreline master programs are the cornerstone of the voter-approved Shoreline Management Act of 1972. Under the law, cities and counties with regulated shorelines are required to develop and periodically update their locally-tailored programs to help minimize environmental damage to shoreline areas, reserve appropriate areas for water-oriented uses, and protect the public’s right to access public lands and waters.

A diverse group representing local interests worked collaboratively with Pateros to update the local shoreline master program. The process began with a thorough inventory of existing land-use patterns and environmental conditions and was prepared and completed with private consultant support. These groups included waterfront property owners, scientists, non-profit organizations, tribal government representatives, agricultural interests, and state and local resource agency staff.

Pateros’s shoreline program:

– Creates a more unified and efficient development code for shorelines that integrates Pateros’s comprehensive planning and zoning, and floodplain management and critical areas ordinances.

– Establishes protective buffers to protect fish and wildlife habitat, with the flexibility to reduce buffers based on individual property circumstances.

– Increases property protection from shoreline erosion through the use of soft-bank erosion control methods, and limiting use of hard-armoring that may endanger neighboring properties.

– Includes a plan showing where and how voluntary restoration in water and upland areas can enhance shoreline benefits and values.

More than 200 towns, cities and counties with regulated shorelines have until December 2014 to update their shoreline master programs. The regulations and deadline were the result of a negotiated settlement in 2003 among 58 different parties including business interests, ports, environmental groups, shoreline user groups, cities and counties, Ecology and the courts.

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Press Release, September 13, 2012