Clark County and five of the county's cities have been awarded a $1.2 million grant by the Washington Department of Ecology to assist them in completing updates to their Shoreline Master Programs (SMPs).
Three hundred miles of stream and lake shorelines in Clark County are under the jurisdiction of the plans to be updated. The City of Vancouver will administer the money for the plan updates, which impact shorelines in the cities of Camas, La Center, Ridgefield and Washougal, as well as within Vancouver and unincorporated Clark County.
Local jurisdictions are required to create SMPs to meet their obligations under the Shoreline Management Act (SMA). The act requires local jurisdictions to periodically review and revise their shoreline regulations in order to minimize environmental damage to shoreline areas.
The SMA and the Growth Management Act (GMA) have concurrent jurisdiction over critical areas that exist within shoreline areas. Washington courts have grappled with the scope of SMPs in two separate cases in the last year, resolving the matter by allowing SMPs to control shoreline development even when they conflict with substantive provisions of GMA-required critical areas ordinance plans. (For more information on recent litigation of Shoreline Master Programs, click here and here.)
Under state law, each of Washington's 266 cities and counties with shorelines must update their SMPs by December 2014.
