Final Comments Sought On Delayed Shoreline Proposal

Sun., Sept. 17, 1995

By John Craig johnc@spokesman.com

Stevens County residents will have another opportunity Monday - perhaps their last - to comment on the Shoreline Management Plan they were supposed to have adopted 23 years ago.

The plan would establish controls on development within 200 feet of lakes of 20 or more acres and streams with flows of 20 cubic feet per second or more, a measure that includes nine large creeks.

If no major issues are raised at a 7 p.m. public hearing at the Stevens County Courthouse in Colville, the plan could be in force by the end of the year, public officials say.

Monday’s hearing will be conducted by the Ecology Department, which has the last word on the plan. County commissioners signed off in June.

Most other counties in Washington adopted shoreline plans shortly after a 1971 state law required them to do so. The state Ecology Department developed plans for counties like Spokane that refused to do their own, but Stevens County slipped through the cracks with empty promises.

The county finally started work on its plan in 1989 after getting a state grant to cover the cost.

The long delay reflects the distaste many Stevens County residents have for land-use planning.

, DataTimes

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