Washougal officials say shorline master program won’t have major impacts on property owners

Plan aims to protect shoreline environment, promote water-oriented development and increase public access and recreational opportunities

City of Washougal leaders are reassuring homeowners that new development standards included in the city’s shoreline master program update should not have any major impacts on individual property owners.

Mitch Kneipp, the city’s community development director, and Ethan Spoo of DOWL, a Vancouver-based engineering firm, recently led talks with Washougal homeowners who might be impacted by the plan.

“They felt comfortable with what we were doing,” Kneipp told Washougal City Council members during the council’s April 28 workshop. “We actually got off on other tangents that really didn’t have anything to do with shoreline, to be honest, and I think spoke to how comfortable they were with what we were doing.”

Council members are set to vote on the proposed shoreline management program updates on May 23.

The plan aims to protect the shoreline environment, promote water-oriented development and increase public access and recreational opportunities. It includes shoreline properties in Washougal, mostly near the Columbia and Washougal rivers and Gibbons Creek.

The proposed shoreline master program update includes “a more specific list of uses allowed and development standards within the shorelines,” Kneipp said, and calls for non-water-oriented uses, including houses, sheds and garages, to be at least 50 feet away from streams with water-oriented uses such as access trails, viewing decks and recreational supply sheds required to be at least 35 feet away from streams.

Spoo said most of Washougal’s shorelines are already built out and that “a lot of Washougal shorelines are taken up by residential properties.”

But Kneipp said current homeowners within the shoreline management areas should not experience any new impacts.

“Single-family residential uses and associated uses remain permitted, and there’s a clearer list of exemptions, including maintenance, repair and replacement,” he said. “While the new SMP establishes new setbacks for residential uses, most properties along our shorelines are already developed, and the new SMP recognizes them as ‘nonconforming development,’ which means they can be maintained, repaired, altered, rebuilt and even enlarged or expanded.”

The proposed plan does offer some flexibility, including exemptions for normal maintenance, repair and replacement.

“We’re trying to be as flexible as possible,” Spoo said, “so we’re integrating some of the flexibility that we see in other shoreline master programs around the state.”

Homeowners who attended the city’s focus group session said city officials should provide educational materials for shoreline regulations and vegetation management; create clearly defined public access points with signage and wayfinding; and invest in shoreline pedestrian, bicycle and trail connections between parks, neighborhoods, and the downtown area.

Residents also would like to see the city encourage water-oriented commercial development along the Columbia River; maintain the remaining natural undeveloped character of the Washougal River; improve shoreline amenities such as restrooms and parking; maintain high-use shoreline access points instead of creating new ones; and enhance connectivity between Hathaway Park, Schmid Family Park and the surrounding neighborhoods.

For more information, visit cityofwashougal.us/368/Shoreline-Master-Program-Update.

Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; [email protected]