COER, Navy agree on lawsuit`s dismissal
Transcription
COER, Navy agree on lawsuit`s dismissal
Vol. 126, No. 33 News-Times Whidbey SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2016 WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75 CENTS Your hometown newspaper for 126 years FilmSlam highlights reserve COER, Navy agree on lawsuit’s dismissal Pot grower likely to gain permit to keep growing pot Lack of penalty leads to questions about fairness By DAN RICHMAN [email protected] Island County Hearing Examiner Michael Bobbink is expected to issue a permit within a week, giving marijuana harvesters in Oak Harbor’s industrial area permission to do what they’ve been doing for two years. The Board of Commissioners Wednesday concluded it will take no action to halt the pending issuance of a land-use permit to the large Oak Harbor recreational marijuana-growing and -processing operation. As long as two years ago, By JESSIE STENSLAND [email protected] A federal lawsuit brought against the U.S. Navy by a Central Whidbey antinoise group is officially over. Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve for a Healthy, Safe & Peaceful Environment, or COER, and a top Navy official agreed to a stipulation of dismissal of the 2013 lawsuit in U.S. District Court earlier this week. The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that it can be refiled at a later date. SEE PERMIT, A14 SEE SUIT, A12 COER takes jet noise complaints to Health board Photo by Dan Richman/Whidbey News-Times Speakers at Monday evening’s housing forum included (left to right) Oak Harbor Public Schools Superintendent Lance Gibbon, Oak Harbor Development Services Director Steve Powers and Oak Harbor Mayor Bob Severns. Severns: Island housing shortage an opportunity By DAN RICHMAN [email protected] The expansion of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island — already underway, and projected to increase dramatically by 2018 — poses a housing challenge to Oak Harbor, Mayor Bob Severns said while addressing an April 18 meeting of about 85 Realtors, developers and city and county officials. page 10 “I would never call this a crisis,” he said. “I would call this an opportunity.” The “opportunity” is to house 3,747 additional Oak Harbor residents by 2036, said Steve Powers, the city’s development services director. The city’s population, including Navy personnel and their families, is projected to grow by that numSEE HOUSING, A13 By JESSIE STENSLAND [email protected] Several times a year, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island’s Search and Rescue team performs water exercises. Their rescue swimmers leap Members of an anti-jet-noise group took a somewhat new tack this week by taking their fight to the Island County Board of Health. Ultimately, however, they weren’t successful in convincing the majority of board members to take any action. Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, or COER, rallied the “victims of jet noise” to speak to the board of elected officials about health problems allegedly caused by the exposure to the EA-18G Growlers that practice touch-and-go landings at the Outlying Field Coupeville. The citizens presented the board members with studies on health effects of jet noise; several people spoke about their personal experience with such things as hearing loss while living under the flight path. SEE TRAINING, A12 SEE COER, A13 Photo by Debra VaughnWhidbey News-Times The Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Search and Rescue unit practices water rescue exercises at Campbell Lake Wednesday evening. North Whidbey Fire and Rescue attend the exercises as a precaution. Need a lift? Navy SAR conducts training By DEBRA VAUGHN [email protected] I n order to save you, Adam Trump has to practice throwing himself out of a helicopter. Page A12 WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM SUIT CONTINUED FROM A1 File photo/Whidbey News-Times Members of Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve and other residents protest Navy jet noise at OLF Coupeville a couple of years ago. COER’s lawsuit against the Navy was dismissed this week. COER’s attorney David Mann, of Seattle, said the dismissal of the case is largely a housekeeping matter because all of the issues cited by the group in its lawsuit were dealt with. COER originally filed a lawsuit against the Navy in 2013 to force it to prepare a full environmental impact statement, or EIS, for the then-new Growler. The group maintains that the Growler is much louder than its predecessor, the EA-6B Prowler. The lawsuit also alleged that the number of practice flights at Outlying Field Coupeville was much higher than the Navy had previously promised. Whidbey Island Naval Air Station uses the small runway south of Coupeville to simulate aircraft carrier landings. After the lawsuit was filed, the Navy announced that a Saturday, April 23, 2016 • Whidbey News-Times full environmental impact statement will be conducted for the addition of new squadrons coming to Whidbey; the report is currently scheduled to be released this fall. The Navy also reduced significantly on the number of the touch-and-go flights at OLF Coupeville and started communicating with the public about the flight schedule. As part of its lawsuit, COER filed a preliminary injunction against the Navy to halt the flights until the EIS was completed; a judge ruled against COER. “At this point, it doesn’t have a lot of relevance,” Mann said, adding that the lawsuit probably should have been dismissed after the judge’s decision denying the injunction. Mann said the lawsuit will probably only be re-filed if the Navy increases the number of flights at the OLF Coupeville, which he speculated is unlikely to happen. Once the EIS is released, COER members will undoubtedly take a close look at it. Mann said that any legal action that may come in response to the EIS would be in the form of a completely new lawsuit. Photo by Debra Vaughn/Whidbey News-Times Daniel Ismay of Naval Air Station Whidbey SAR hands a dry bag full of barbecue to his colleague Zach Delcorte, a rescue swimmer. SAR CONTINUED FROM A1 out of one of the unit’s three MH-60S helicopters. On Wednesday, the SAR team had an opportunity to practice those skills at Lake Campbell in warm, sunny almost summer-like conditions. They teamed up with members of North Whidbey Fire and Rescue, who kept a boat on the water as a precaution. “Our role is if something happens, we are there to rescue the swimmers or the people in the helo,” said North Whidbey Fire and Rescue Capt. Jim O’Connor. Wednesday, Trump stayed in the bird as a crew chief, managing the hoist that lowers rescuers up and down. He’s qualified for water and over land rescues. “I get them in safely using the rescue device,” he said. “I have to be one step ahead of them once they’re in the water.” And he’s also in constant, close contact with the pilots up front. The two organizations started working together on this training exercise several years ago, O’Connor said. It’s beneficial for both groups. They may have to work together in a rescue situation, he said. Some of the newer fire and rescue volunteers need to become accustomed to potentially working around the spray kicked up by the helo’s powerful rotor blades. “We’ve learned what to expect and do everything we can to accommodate them,” O’Connor. And that includes some good old-fashioned brotherly love. The North Whidbey folks throw a barbecue and since the SAR team can’t exactly set the bird down at the county boat launch, they find another way to send food. They packed a dry bag full of hamburgers, hot dogs and the like. A SAR rescue swimmer swam to the powerboat to retrieve and send it up to the helo. A little more work than the McDonald’s drive-thru, but effective. SAR operates as search and rescue platforms for EA-18G Growler as well as for other squadrons and personnel at NAS Whidbey. The base has an agreement to help the state with medical evacuations and search and rescue activities. They can be called on to operate anywhere from Mount Hood in Oregon to the Canadian border. NAS Whidbey’s SAR team is unusual — only one of four in the country — that is trained to not just pluck distressed people from the water but to handle anything in the mountains too. Saturday, April 23, 2016 • Whidbey News-Times HOUSING CONTINUED FROM A1 ber to 25,822 in 2036, up from 22,075 in 2010. Using 2016 as a baseline, the number of military and civilian personnel, plus their families, associated with NAS Whidbey is projected to increase by 1,320 people, or 7 percent, to 19,560 by 2018; and by 3,740 people, or 20 percent, to 21,980 by 2019, the Navy has said. About 70 percent currently live in Oak Harbor, with Coupeville and Anacortes the next most popular cities, said Capt. Geoffrey Moore, the base’s commanding officer. To accommodate the additional 3,747 people, Oak Harbor needs 1,629 more housing units, either apartments or houses, Powers said. The city’s Urban Growth Area, land contiguous to the city limits, has enough space COER CONTINUED FROM A1 Residents reported experiencing noise past 130 decibels, which is well above the level considered safe. COER presented the board with a list of things it can do to educate and protect the public, including closing Rhododendron Park. Coupeville resident Jerome Squire said it’s not unpatriotic to speak out against the harmful impacts of the noise. “The Navy provided me with a living,” he said. “I love the Navy. I don’t like the OLF.” Several people, including former Commissioner Mac McDowell, spoke about the importance of the outlying field to training and the Navy’s mission. McDowell urged the board to allow the Navy to complete an environmental assessment. After the lengthy public comment period — which got a little rowdy at times — the board members had a lively discussion of their own, but ended up heeding McDowell’s advice. Dr. Brad Thomas, county health officer, asked the board for direction. He noted that the studies provided mainly focus on the health effects of noise from commercial jets, which he noted is longer duration but lower volume than noise from military jets. He said military aircraft are exempt from regulation and questioned what a county health board could do. Still, he said he felt that the board should have a response. “I want to nudge you a little bit,” he said. “Maybe we really truly need to make a statement, one way or the other, just to acknowledge a huge community demand on us.” Grethe Cammermeyer, a for those units, he said. A considerable amount of new-home construction is currently, or about to be, under way, including: n Island Place, 66 singlefamily homes near the intersection of Northwest Heller Street and Northwest Crosby Avenue, under construction. n Marin Woods, 43 singlefamily homes off Southwest Swantown Avenue near the intersection with Fairway Lane, is in preliminary review. Four projects are being considered, though no application has yet been submitted. They are: n The Garry Oak subdivision, at the intersection of Southwest 24th Avenue and State Highway 20, with 59 single-family homes; n Ely Terrace, at the intersection of Southeast Ely Street and Southeast Barrington Drive, with 30 townhouses; n Tanya Jean, at 300 Northeast Seventh Avenue, retired military nurse and a member of the hospital board, suggested that the board put together a work group to look into possible ways to mitigate the problem. Commissioner Helen Price Johnson said the complaints have merit. She said the Growlers are significantly louder than the previous aircraft. She said the noise-related data that the Navy relies on doesn’t reflect what the community experiences because it’s averaged out over entire days and doesn’t capture the intense noise of the Growlers. She suggested that the board urge the Navy to make the jets quieter. “The same people who make the Growler also make stealth aircraft,” she said, “so that they say it can’t be done is very difficult for me to accept.” The three other members, however, decided to leave the issue to the federal government. Commissioner Jill Johnson said she’s more concerned about job loss if the Navy base closes. She said being poor is a risk factor for health problems. She said some of the people may have a legitimate concern, like the noise exposure to children playing at the Rhododendron Park. But, she argued, much of the rhetoric is overblown. “A lot of what was happening here today was a HaightAshbury revival of people who have an agenda, and they’re using public health to accomplish it,” she said. “I’m not going to participate in that.” Oak Harbor Mayor Bob Severns and Commissioner Rick Hannold agreed, saying that a lot more people in the community support the Navy, jets noise and all. WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM with five townhouses; and n AHA Investments, at 425 Southeast Barrington Drive, with 26 apartments. Those developments, which will bring a total of 229 units if all are built, won’t be close to enough to meet the demand, Powers conceded. Ready to step in is Clayton Homes, a Maryville, Tenn. builder of manufactured and mobile homes. “The city’s definitely facing a housing crunch, obviously,” said general manager Trevor Belch, who attended the meeting. “We are starting investigating what we can do to bring our product into this area.” Clayton might start by buying up 4-5 lots and building on spec, Belch said. “We can do entire subdivisions,” if the demand is there, he said. Clayton Homes can build a dwelling in 12-13 weeks, Belch said. Permits are most often the hold-up. Clayton carries the cost of construction, so the buyer need only pay at the end. Because the units are titled as real property, buyers may qualify for FHA, USDA or VA financing, Belch said. Page A13 The housing shortage is real, said Rick Chapman, president of real estate firm Coldwell Banker Tara Bayview, at the meeting. On a typical day recently, 110 houses were for sale and seven were for rent in the North Whidbey area, defined as the region between Libbey Road and Deception Pass Bridge. Of those 110 houses, 52 cost under $400,000 — the top of the range most military families can afford, Chapman said. Those numbers held steady over several days, he said. The 52 houses represented a one-month supply at recent sales rates, he said. “So coming here to find a house seven months before you get transferred here, that’s about what you need to do,” he said. As for rentals, “we have zero vacancies,” he said. “Tenants notify us they’ll be moving out and we get new renters two weeks later, sight unseen.” Rents on North Whidbey have increased an average of 25 percent, and in some cases up to 40 percent, over the past 2-1/2 years, “and they’re still going up,” he said. Page A14 PERMIT CONTINUED FROM A1 the owners of seven buildings, between 3143 and 3171 Goldie Road, without such a permit, converted some of the buildings from commercial retail use to marijuana use. They ejected several retail businesses in the process, and their own multiple tenants have freely engaged in the marijuana business since. The facility’s owners, Christina and Scott Hensrude, of Woodinville, filed for a land-use permit in 2014, but just had their requisite site plan review hearing on April 15. After discussing the situation, the commissioners on Wednesday explained that, if you want to undertake a lawful activity or project in Island County, there’s no need to get a county land-use permit first. You may freely proceed with your plans. If someone complains — and only filing an official complaint will suffice — then the county will give you 45 WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM days to file for the permit. If you do so, no penalty will be imposed, and the permit will not be withheld. If nobody complains, you are free to continue your unpermitted use indefinitely. “Our effort is to get people to move toward the right building permits and land-use permits to get compliance,” Hiller West, the county’s director of current-use planning and community development, said at the meeting. Punishment is not part of equation. Here’s where the confusion occurs. In past instances, some residents failing to first obtain land-use permits were issued stop-work orders until they obtained one. Others waited to proceed until they got their permits, out of fear and respect for how they believed the law is enforced. For example, because she lacked land-use and building permits, recreational marijuana retailer Maureen Cooke in 2014 was hit with a stopwork order while preparing to open her South Whidbey store. Obtaining those permits cost Cooke $2,500 and delayed her opening by four months. Lucas Jushinski waited six months, spending more than $6,000 in rent on an empty storefront and $2,000 in insurance while waiting for Island County to issue a land-use permit for his recreational marijuana retail store in Freeland. “I didn’t want to live in fear of the county coming in and closing me down,” he said. Jushinski just opened his store. It’s clear that some county residents seek to find, understand and follow the law, while others are ignorant of the law or flout it, said County Commissioner Jill Johnson. The root of the problem is that the county currently doesn’t treat those two groups differently, she said. “What do we do to distinguish between those types of behavior?” she asked rhetorically during an interview Thursday. “We need different mechanisms to deal with them, because right now people who follow the rules are being put at a distinct disadvantage, and we want to encourage rule-following.” Saturday, April 23, 2016 • Whidbey News-Times Photo by Dan Richman/Whidbey News-Times Kristiina Miller, founder and director of not-for-profit Garage of Blessings, gestures toward her charity’s former home, now a marijuana operation. She moved into another building but will have to leave when that one, too, is converted to marijuana use. As to the outcome in the current situation, with apparent scofflaws getting away with it, Johnson said, “It’s just lousy. It’s a lousy situation.” The outcome “is frustrating, because (the law) is inconsistent in its application,” agreed Commissioner Helen Price Johnson on Wednesday. “If one person has a neighbor who complains and another doesn’t, and they’re doing the same activity — that’s the crux of the problem in how we’re going about this right now.” Price Johnson said a discussion of rural land use, scheduled for next year, might lead to changes. Surprisingly, one person who followed the law said he is happy others did not. “I’m glad the Oak Harbor guys just went ahead and did what they wanted to do,” said Jushinksi, the pot retailer. “The county wants to get its hands into everything, and it takes forever to do anything.” Enforcing land-use and building laws by encouraging compliance, rather than by punishing non-compliance, is probably common in this state, said Josh Weiss, general counsel for the Washington Association of Counties. “My anecdotal sense is that most counties would take the compliance approach, at least at first and probably only up to a certain point,” he said.
Similar documents
Haiden Rogers - Oak Harbor Schools
Haiden was recognized for his leadership as one of 10 students in the state selected for the AAA School Safety Patrol Hall of Fame. In honor of Haiden’s selection, the Washington State Tra瀦ㄽic Safe...
More information