County Says Hearings Board Has No Jurisdiction Because The County Can Go Back On Its Word And Break The Law If It Wants

My brain hurts.  Had to write responses to the County's, and Whatcom Land Trusts, challenge to Hearings Board jurisdiction this week... 40 hours of misery.

Boiled down, the County's primary legal issue is, "Our word doesn't mean anything so it is not illegal to break our word.  Because we can break our word at will, even if it violates the law, the Hearings Board doesn't have the right to say we did anything wrong."

In short, the DNR is required, by law, to believe the County when it says it can, and will, use the land for a public park.  There is no further formal  public process once the County's hearing is completed.  The DNR is required, by law, unless there is a flaw in the County's application, to allow reconveyance... That is what the challenge is all about.

Even if the County has lied, deliberately or inadvertenly on its application, reconveyance must be allowed unless DNR realizes it has been duped.  A Hearings Board decision is the only way to legally inform the DNR it has been duped so, of course, the County is frantic about making sure the Board doesn't get to make a decision.

Once reconveyance has taken place reversing the act and returning the land is virtually impossible.  The County has the land and doesn't have to do a thing with it, law or no law,  except thumb their nose at DNR, and any citizen who actually expected a park, and tell them to go pound sand if they don't like it.

Is The DNR Going To Intervene - Is The Timber Industry Going To Settle?

The second Pre-hearing Conference was held yesterday morning.  The new schedule was necessary because some timber industry folks challenged on the Reconveyance.

Three interesting things came to light, one old and one new and one a little of both.

First, when challenged, the County is supposed to make a complete record of the material used to arrive at a decision available to the challengers.  What the County did include in the record was a limited amount of material.  It doesn't even include the minutes of the Council meetings last year when the County requested reconveyance and the intertrust transfer.  The record the county introduced, aside from two or three documents, included nothing prior to July of last year.  I will even have to apply to the Hearings Board even to have the SEPA document included.  Some sparks flew over that between the industry challengers and Royce Buckingham who is handling the case for the County. 

Second, Royce let it slip he had asked the Department of Natural Resources to intervene in the case or, at least, that is how I took his comments.  Interesting the County is recruiting interveners.  Actually, I think that one may backfire on the County but we will see.

Last, it seems the timber people and the County have agreed to continue the discussion regarding some kind of settlement.  The County had turned me flat down on a settlement that would include the county doing the things necessary to legally rezone the property so, I wonder what the alternatives might be.  In my view if the County is not willing to do the job properly then the challenge should continue.  We'll see.

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Whatcom Land Trust Allowed To Intervene But Is Restricted To Addressing Challenge Issues

The pre-hearing conference between the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board, Jack Petree and Whatcom County was held this morning.

Despite not having yet been accepted as an Intervener, Whatcom Land Trust's attorney, Heather Wolf, called and signed into the conference as well.

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Whatcom Land Trust's view of how large the local forest products industry should be

The land trust participation was a good thing in the sense that we were able to address my objections to the Trust's participation today without having to disrupt the schedule.

The Land Trust was allowed to intervene in the case but, the Trust was limited by the Board to addressing only issues brought up in the challenge to the reconveyance so, the potential for a circus revolving around issues having nothing to do with the reconveyance is avoided.

Lots of work for the remainder of the month asking for new materials to be added to the exhibit list and so on. 

We're More Than Just A Pretty Face Now

I received a form from the Prosecutor's Office Friday with the case number on it.  Apparently we are Hearings Board number 13-2-0016 based on that communication.  I have not yet been formally notified, probably because mail is a bit delayed from Olympia.

Meanwhile, I thought you might enjoy the photos below, taken in the 1890s.  The two forests pictured are not the Reconveyance lands but are of forests similar to Whatcom County's.

The takeaway is that the pre-settlement forests were not static. They burned, they died, they were blown over in windstorns and they grew again.

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According to the survey of the nation's forests accomplished in the last years of the 1800s, much of the forest in Whatcom County had burned before it was harvested.  Note the forest in front of the McMansion in the bottom photo.