Key Commitments
Limit industrial piers at Cherry Point to existing three piers in operation or approved as of January 1, 1998; no net loss of shoreline ecological functions as baseline set February 27, 2007
Goals
(9 total)
- Goal 11A: Create and maintain an economic environment that can coexist harmoniously with the natural and human environment.
- Goal 11B: Increase the general public's ability to reach, touch, and enjoy the water's edge and view the shoreline; protect private rights, public safety, and ecological functions.
- Goal 11C: Provide opportunities and space for diverse forms of water-oriented recreation.
- Goal 11D: Provide transportation systems and essential public facilities in shoreline areas without adverse effects on existing use, development, or ecological functions/processes.
- Goal 11E: Preserve and develop shorelines in a manner that allows for an orderly balance of uses.
- Goal 11F: Conserve shoreline resources and important shoreline features, and protect shoreline ecological functions and the processes that sustain them to the maximum extent practicable.
- Goal 11G: Protect shoreline features of historic, cultural, archeological, or scientific value through coordination with appropriate authorities including affected Indian tribes.
- Goal 11H: Assure that the public's ability and opportunity to enjoy shoreline views and aesthetics is protected.
- Goal 11I: Reestablish, rehabilitate, and/or otherwise improve impaired shoreline ecological functions and/or processes through voluntary and incentive-based programs consistent with the SMP Restoration Plan.
Stronger Policy Language (90 policies)
- Policy 11U-1: Shoreline use and development should be carried out in a manner that prevents or mitigates adverse impacts so that the resulting ecological condition does not become worse than the current condition, assuring no net loss of ecological functions and processes.
- Policy 11F-1: Maintain regulations and mitigation standards that ensure new shoreline developments prevent a net loss of shoreline ecological functions and processes.
- Policy 11X-8: The County shall consult with DAHP and affected Native American tribes as appropriate in implementing the cultural resource goals, objectives, policies, and regulations of this program.
- Policy 11X-9: In reviewing development proposals, the County shall take, or cause project applicants to take, all required actions to minimize the risk of disturbing cultural resources within Whatcom County shorelines.
- Policy 11TT-3: Utilities should be located, designed, constructed, and operated to result in no net loss of shoreline ecological functions and processes with appropriate mitigation.
- Policy 11JJ-1c: It is the policy of Whatcom County to limit the number of industrial piers at Cherry Point to the existing three piers in operation or approved as of January 1, 1998.
- Policy 11OO-7: Measures to conserve native vegetation along shorelines should be required for all residential development.
Aspirational / Monitoring Language (123 policies)
- 11A-1: Encourage economic development that has minimal adverse effects and mitigates unavoidable impacts upon shoreline ecological functions and processes and the built environment.
- 11C-4: Encourage cooperation among public agencies, nonprofit groups, private landowners, and developers to increase and diversify recreational opportunities through a variety of means.
- 11I-2: Restore and enhance shoreline ecological functions, processes, and features through voluntary and incentive-based public and private programs, such as the Shore Friendly Program.
- 11S-11: Public and private developments should be encouraged to provide trails, viewpoints, water access points, and shoreline-related recreation opportunities whenever possible.
- Policy 11EE-2: Restoration of impaired shoreline ecological functions and processes should be encouraged as part of commercial development.
- Policy 11OO-2: New residential development is encouraged to cluster dwelling units together to reduce physical and visual impacts on shorelines and to reduce utility and road costs.
- Policy 11NN-9: Cooperative efforts among public and private persons toward the acquisition and/or development of suitable recreation sites or facilities should be explored to assure long-term availability.