Harmonizing County and Blaine Comp Plans

2/28/25 letter to Whatcom County Planning Commissioners:

Dear Ms. Kogut-Aguon,

Following up on my 2/27/25 letter 'Blaine Water Coalition' in which I described the current destruction of the Drayton Harbor watershed by the City of Blaine, I want to draw the Whatcom County Planning Commissioners' attention to the Growth Management Act (GMA) requirement to harmonize the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan with that of the City of Blaine. Absent enforcement of this GMA requirement by Whatcom County, the county comp plan will be invalid and subject to challenge. 

Leaving that task to the citizenry is unlawful and unfair. I know because in 1994 I led a litigation consortium to victory at the Washington Supreme Court establishing legal precedent for Critical Areas protection statewide. Our victories before the Growth Management Hearings Board, Shorelines Hearings Board, and Washington Court of Appeals 1994-1996 forced me into bankruptcy. Asking citizens to bear the burden of GMA enforcement is corrupt.

The environmental injustice now being perpetrated by the City of Blaine demands that the Whatcom County Planning Commissioners state emphatically that all the cities must harmonize their municipal codes, stormwater standards, sewer system management, shoreline management plans, Critical Areas Ordinances and cumulative impact analyses with Whatcom County.

Additional areas needing harmonization between Whatcom County Planning and the City of Blaine in the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan are climate resilience, protection of tribal cultural resources, public health and safety, in order to end the environmental injustice delineated in my February 27, 2025, letter to you titled BLAINE TOXIC COVERUP. and December 2, 2024, letter titled Blaine Shoreline Management Program deficient.

Harmonization between the Whatcom County comp plan and the Blaine comp plan requires that the county planning commissioners take action now to bring Blaine into line with the law. That action begins with a letter to Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon and Blaine Community Development Services director Alex Wenger that Blaine must immediately adopt the 2024 Washington State Department of Ecology Stormwater Management Manual which was mandated by the state for all cities to adopt by August 1, 2024. Blaine has not done that and by their neglect places the entire county plan in jeopardy.

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