2010-02-02-minutes-public-hearing

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2010-02-02 MINUTES COMMISSIONERS' MINUTES KITTITAS COUNTY, WASHINGTON COMMISSIONERS AUDITORIUM SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY 2:00 P.M. FEBURARY 2, 2010 Board members present: Chairman Mark McClain; Vice-Chairman Paul Jewell and Commissioner Alan Crankovich. Others: Catherine Dunn, Deputy Clerk of the Board; Dan Valoff, Staff Planner; Christina Wollman, Planner; Jan Ollivier, Transportation Manager; Michael Murphy, Attorney for Appellant; Brent Bottoms, Deputy Prosecutor; Sean Northrup, Allison Kimball, Sapphire Skies; Lindsey Ozbolt; Wayne Nelson, Encompass Engineering; and two persons representing the public. APPEAL HEARING PBCP CODE INTERPRETATION COMMISSIONERS At 2:00 p.m. Chairman McClain opened the special meeting continued from January 20, 2010, to consider the Board Discussion and Decision on the appeal by Michael Murphy of the staff administrative decision regarding KCC 16.09 Performance Based Cluster Plats. He noted the record is closed. Commissioner Crankovich said that as part of the 2007 study session on this question, it was agreed upon to consider the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) easement to be part of the Open Space without gaining density bonus points from it. He said that he would honor that interpretation. Vice-Chairman Jewell said he had a different interpretation. He said he questioned whether it could be counted as Open Space. He said the fact that the code had been administered wrongly before, did not mean it had to continue to be administered the wrong way, and he thought the code needed to be modified to preclude these interpretations. Chairman McClain said there was merit to that argument, but a BPA easement was not a regulatory requirement. He said it was not the same protection as Critical Areas Ordinance or Shoreline Management Plan. As a Planning Commission member, when the code was developed, he said they had not allowed the bonus density for those areas protected by other means, and he had to look to the legislative intent. He agreed that the code needed revisions.