Step Up for Business Advocacy: Update
[Originally published March 2017]
Take Action to Support Cherry Point
The saga continues! The Cherry Point Amendment to the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan is being introduced to the full Council on Tuesday, March 21st with the anticipated vote scheduled for Tuesday, April 4th. The language moving forward continues to concern the Cherry Point businesses:
- the Council plans to fund a $150,000 study to find legal ways of limiting exports from Cherry Point which will have a significant impact on the Cherry Point industries’ ability to do business. Impacting that ability threatens the jobs of those who work there.
- the Council is calling for the elimination of the 4th pier option from the Comprehensive Plan altogether. The deep water access at Cherry Point is a unique and highly valuable economic asset for Whatcom County.
- Removing the option for a pier on that property slashes the taxable value of the property which has tremendous consequences for the overall budget that supports County infrastructure and school district budgeting.
Send a comment to the Whatcom County Council from our website www.preservecherrypoint.com. Follow us on Twitter @WBAStepUp.
Lahar Inundation Zone
Just when you thought it was safe…After a very positive interaction in the Fall that resulted in proposed “common sense” language for the Critical Areas section of the Comp Plan, the County staff is pushing back and proposes new changes to the lahar section of the Plan. You can read here the staff recommendation for Option 3 that is a combination of the existing lahar regulations with allowance for some activities such as single family homes and duplexes, but places additional restrictions and requirements on any land uses of greater intensity or density. The Critical Areas Update 2016: Best Available Science Review was used as the basis for the 2016 Critical Areas update.
The County Council will be reviewing the Staff proposed option at a SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, 2017.