Kitsap hearing examiner hears dispute over filling wetlands for Spring Hill affordable-housing project

Kitsap County’s hearing examiner held a continued hearing March 7 on the Spring Hill consolidated appeal, where the central dispute was whether a proposed preliminary plat and mitigation plan that converts small portions of on‑site wetlands to upland can proceed under the county’s mitigation‑sequencing rules or instead requires a separate critical‑area variance.

The applicant, developer David Smith, said the 230‑unit Spring Hill project includes 138 income‑qualified homes and will avoid roughly 93% of on‑site wetlands, and that revisions reduced direct wetland impacts from about 10% to about 7% of on‑site wetlands. Smith said the project team has worked with state and federal reviewers and expects final mitigation and monitoring to meet permitting standards.

The county’s planner, Darren Gurney, told the hearing the department could not confirm the project complies with Kitsap County code’s avoidance and buffer rules and on that basis the county issued a Determination of Significance in December 2024. Gurney told the examiner the department views the preliminary‑plat review and mitigation sequencing together and that the county’s code requires applicants to show they cannot meet required buffers before those buffers may be reduced.

The factual dispute centers on two related questions: (1) whether portions of existing…