Comment period extended on Marrowstone pot processor

Posted

While the Jefferson County hearing examiner has yet to render a decision on Olympus Gardens’ application to establish a marijuana processing business on Marrowstone Island, an additional 14-day comment period was announced July 14 by the Department of Community Development (DCD).

Anyone who has previously commented on the proposed project, as well as anyone who attended and signed in at the open record hearing on June 27, may submit comments regarding the DCD staff’s 42 conditions of recommendation for approval of the permit and the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review process.

In a July 14 memo to hearing examiner Stephen Causseaux, DCD planning manager David Greetham reported that, based on further review, the county has found that its original determination of SEPA exemption should not be withdrawn, and therefore still applies, to the proposed 10,080-square-foot, 24-foot-tall greenhouse that Austin Smith is seeking to build on his property at 9272 Flagler Road in Nordland.

“At the public hearing, the county raised the question of whether the presence of a stream near the easterly edge of the parcel (approximately 600 feet east of the proposed structure) may require reconsideration of the original exemption,” Greetham wrote. “Specifically, exemptions do not apply when a project is undertaken on ‘lands covered by water.’”

Greetham elaborated that the county subsequently contacted the Department of Ecology’s SEPA unit, whose staff confirmed the SEPA rules were updated in 2014 to clarify the meaning of “lands covered by water.”

Greetham noted that the updated definition “does not include adjacent lands and designated buffers above the high water mark.”

Greetham concluded that the county found the original SEPA exemption remains applicable, “as no portion of the proposed project occurs at or below the ordinary high water mark of the stream.”

Comment deadline July 31

Comments should be emailed to nallen@co.jefferson.wa.us or mailed to the Jefferson County Department of Community Development, Attention: Nicole Allen, 621 Sheridan St., Port Townsend, WA 98368 by Monday, July 31. Mailed comments must be postmarked by the date.