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Southworth Forest Update:

Appeal Confronts Kitsap County Errors in Southworth Deforestation

Posted October 14, 2024 by Southworth Forest

Kitsap's administrative decision for the Southworth deforestation permit violates several sections of code and approves work that the violators reportedly no longer intend to complete. Reviewers approved the full scope of the project instead, and the appellants have extensive evidence of Kitsap errors in their process.

The understaffed and error-prone Kitsap County Department of Community Development (DCD) has issued its administrative decision on the after-the-fact permit for the illegal 2019 forest destruction at 11090 SE Southworth Dr. in Port Orchard. The decision is based upon an ineffective and incomplete review by a Kitsap DCD staff that has proven itself unable to obtain and consider clarifying project information from the violators.

The community already appealed Kitsap's environmental determination for this project in regards to the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) in April, 2024. Per the requirements of Kitsap's code, the final administrative decision must be appealed as well for the SEPA appeal to survive. The same community members filed the second appeal on October 10, 2024, detailing the DCD's continued mishandling of the permit and refusal to understand the violators' actual intentions with the permit.

"Despite receiving no clarifying revisions, the DCD approved the permit anyway due to concern over the delay on the SEPA appeal, leaving many issues unresolved," the 14-page appeal states. It then summarizes other issues:

"Because the applicants' submittals historically have been riddled with errors, uncertainties, and vagueness, additional review must be conducted per Kitsap County Code (KCC) to ensure that proper stormwater, planning, and environmental considerations are addressed. Beyond the SEPA and associated environmental impacts in need of more specific recognition and conditioning, the proposal utilizes inaccurate and conflicting site plans, applies incorrect stormwater measures on steep slopes, and seeks to develop an impassible roadway on a neighboring easement, among other concerns."

The DCD's handling of this permit violates countless sections of Title 21 of Kitsap County Code ("Land Use and Development Procedure"), the law that governs how permits are handled by the department. The SEPA appeal previously revealed violations of Title 21 by environmental reviewers Scott Diener and Steve Heacock. The final administrative decision exposes additional violations of Title 21 by project lead and stormwater supervisor Cecilia Olsen, along with careless review mistakes that defy Title 12 (Stormwater Drainage).

Complicating this situation is the news revealed in the appeal that the violators are proposing significant changes to their intended land use only after the permit's approval. The DCD had been attempting since late 2023 to receive revised site plans from the violators, but to no avail. Now that the permit approval and appeal has occurred, the appellants are forced to ask for a delay (legally termed a "stay") in the appeal process so that the violators' scaled back intentions for their parcel can be considered by the DCD instead.

Regardless of the outcome of negotiations between the violators and the neighboring appellants, the DCD has clearly dropped the ball in its enforcement and review of this deforestation permit. Their staff must have known that the appellants would be forced to fight the approved, full scope of the proposal. Based on the strength of both the SEPA and final appeals, it is likely that the County's Hearing Examiner will send the permit back to the DCD (a "remand") to reapprove only the violators' newly constricted or negotiated proposal for the land.

The DCD, which had smugly invited these appeals via Scott Diener in 2023, had the opportunity for most of 2024 to work collaboratively with the violators and the appellants to solve these issues prior to the administrative decision. But the DCD reviewers simply gave up, dropped their requests for clarification from the violators, and declined to communicate meaningfully with the appellants. The residents of Kitsap County deserve better than the lazy, costly, and unhelpful behavior by DCD reviewers and their leadership.

You can read the full administrative appeal filing.