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Clallam County review panel seeks legal opinion on tribal trust land transfers, considers charter amendment
Summary
The Clallam County Charter Review Commission debated legal questions around Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe trust land acquisitions, agreed to seek a prosecutor's opinion, collect land-mapping data and consider a charter amendment or resolution to the Board of County Commissioners. Public commenters urged use of federal administrative review.
The Clallam County Charter Review Commission on an August meeting discussed whether to seek a formal legal opinion about tribal trust land acquisitions and whether the commission should propose a charter amendment that would direct county planning responses to Bureau of Indian Affairs trust transfers.
Commissioners and participants focused on legal foundations for placing acquired land into trust, including the Treaty of Point No Point (1855) and the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, and agreed to ask the county prosecutor (referred to in the meeting as "Dee") for counsel and for the executive committee to authorize that request.
Why it matters: trust land acquisitions can remove parcels from county land-use regulation and local taxation if accepted into federal trust, and the commission said it wants clearer guidance on what the county may properly tell the BIA when asked about impacts to county tax base and land-use authority.
Discussion and steps…
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