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Port Orchard begins update to critical areas code to meet state growth-management and fish‑and‑wildlife guidance
Summary
City staff presented a draft update to Port Orchard Municipal Code POMC 20.162 to align buffers and riparian terminology with state guidance and to create a wetland mitigation hierarchy; planning commission review and a March public hearing were projected.
Port Orchard staff told the Land Use Committee they have drafted revisions to the city’s Critical Areas Ordinance (POMC 20.162) to incorporate best available science, adjust buffer standards and create a wetland mitigation hierarchy as part of implementing the 2024 comprehensive-plan periodic update.
Jim Fisk, principal planner, said the city recently completed the 2024 comprehensive-plan update and is now required to amend the critical areas ordinance. “The amendments that are proposed are intended to ensure compliance with GMA and integrate best available science for the protection of critical areas, which include wetlands, critical aquifer recharge areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, steep slopes,” Fisk said. He described four or five main changes: reorganizing code for clarity, updating buffer standards to align with ecological recommendations, creating a wetland mitigation hierarchy and replacing “stream buffer” terminology with “riparian management zone” (RMZ) language to meet Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife guidance.
Fisk said the planning commission received a clean version and a redline draft and had technical Q&A with the city’s consultant, Grady Associates (Chad Wallen). Staff plan additional planning-commission consideration in February, publication of a comment matrix responding to public and commission comments, and a public hearing in March. He said the city intends to bring the final ordinance to council later this year, with an effective date likely in late 2025 or early 2026.
Council members asked about tribal consultation. Fisk said the city received a tribal comment during the comprehensive-plan adoption and later sent the CAO draft to the tribe; staff had not yet received a response. Committee members noted that Kitsap County’s CAO has been appealed by the Kitsap Environmental Coalition and by the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe; Fisk said the tribe’s comment centered on use of site-potential tree height as a buffer methodology and that appeals may be instructive for the city’s process.
Ending: Staff will continue to work with the planning commission, receive and respond to public and tribal comments, and present a revised CAO for public hearing in March before eventual council consideration later in the year.
