Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The city of Tekoa has a 60-day comment period underway for the proposed update to its Shoreline Master Plan.
At the conclusion of Tekoa’s public comment period, a public hearing will be Oct. 19.
As part of a freshening of the 1974 documents – which categorize shorelines for purposes of protection – Tekoa is part of a county wide interlocal agreement which hired consultants Berk Consulting and The Watershed Company to aid the process. Both are based in the Seattle area.
The state-required update is being undertaken by seven Whitman County towns located along the Palouse River.
Up for revising is how wide a buffer zone should be between the use of shoreline land and the average high water mark of each stretch of the Palouse River.
In Tekoa, about two miles of shoreline is under consideration.
The public comment period began July 28.
The Shoreline Master Plan’s (SMP) aim is to deem permissible uses and standards for land along water, while allowing for grandfather clauses of previous uses and construction.
Categories which Washington’s SMP encompasses include residential, commercial, agriculture and natural areas.
The Plan was created from the Shoreline Management Act of 1971, a statewide voter referendum.
Some revising has occurred in other jurisdictions around the state in the time since. Updating then began in earnest after 2003, when a change was made to the Washington Administrative Code Guidelines for Content of the Shoreline Master Program at the local level.
In 2013, the county received a $591,000 grant from D.O.E. to begin work on an updated plan.
Each city council will have a version tailored to their jurisdiction.
If for some reason one of the Palouse towns does not agree to their area’s plan, the D.O.E. will continue to work with them. Ultimately, if no agreement is reached, the D.O.E. would adopt a new plan by rule, which has never happened before.
All together, the Plan includes streams and waterways larger than 20-cubic feet per second in average annual water flow, along with lakes larger than 20 acres.
In Whitman County, this includes the Snake River, Palouse River and Pine Creek.
The Plan categorizes land within 200 feet of a shore’s high water mark. Most setbacks or restrictions, if any, are within 20-50 feet of a shoreline.
The work has been going on in Whitman County for the past two years.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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