PORT ANGELES — Clallam County will spend a tenth of a $1 million Environmental Protection Agency shoreline planning grant on a series of public forums to benefit multiple jurisdictions in the Puget Sound basin.
The state Department of Ecology requires all cities and counties to update their shoreline master programs by 2014. The shoreline planning document regulates how property can be used along lakes, rivers and marine shores.
Commissioners indicated Monday that they would likely approve the $98,953 contract with Norton-Arnold and Co. today.
“It’s an agreement with the consultant to conduct four forums around the Puget Sound,” said Cathy Lear, Clallam County habitat biologist.
“The final one will be held in Blyn. This was part of our EPA grant. The forums are sort of a broad, asking a lot of questions about how to make the Shoreline Master Program better.”
The county is the administrator of the $999,915 EPA grant to integrate the concept “no net loss of ecological functions.”
The EPA and Ecology want the county to share information it gleans from the federal grant to help other local jurisdictions update their own shoreline plans.
County Administrator Jim Jones told the three commissioners that the $98,953 contract with Norton-Arnold is in the budget.
“It’s part of the grant,” Jones said.
“It just needs to come to you because of the amount of the contract.”
The scope of work has five main tasks for the consultant: hold a kickoff meeting and prepare for the forums, set up and manage an online platform, conduct the forums, draft a preliminary and final report and manage the shoreline update project.
The forums will be held in the fall and winter.
In related news, Clallam County will host a series of its own forums this week to share information and gather public feedback on its Shoreline Master Program update
The meeting will focus on a recently-released shoreline inventory and characterization reports.
Forums will be conducted throughout the county. The schedule is:
■ Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the public meeting room (160) of the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
■ Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Crescent Community Grange in Joyce, 50870 state Highway 112.
■ Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Clallam Bay/Sekiu Lions Club at the corner of Sixth and Bogachiel streets in Clallam Bay.
■ Thursday at 1 p.m. at John Wayne Marina, 2577 W. Sequim Bay Road.
■ Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at John Wayne Marina.
Each of the five forums is scheduled to last 2½ hours.
Shoreline master programs are a requirement of the 1972 Shoreline Management Act, which is intended to “prevent the inherent harm in an uncoordinated and piecemeal development of the state’s shorelines,” according to the state Department of Ecology.
For information on Clallam County’s shoreline planning update, visit www.tinyurl.com/3dej7h8, phone the planning department at 360-417-2563 or email smp@co.clallam.wa.us.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.