New Shoreline Rules for Washington State Being Appealed by Business Interests

OLYMPIA, WA-Washington’s largest business association is leading the charge to kill a new rule adopted by the state Department of Ecology meant to slow development along 20,000 miles of shoreline. The Association of Washington Business and 17 co-petitioners are asking the state’s Shorelines Hearings Board to overturn the shoreline management guidelines adopted late last year by Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons.

DOE adopted the guidelines in part to protect the habitat of fish listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. As a result, some say the case may test the ability of federal law to indirectly regulate state and local land-use decisions. The changes were ordered by the state Legislature in 1995 as part of the procedure for state’s Shoreline Management Act, passed in 1971 by voters intent on protecting the state’s waterways from harm by way of development.

In its appeal, the Association of Washington Business and other petitioners are claiming the state overstepped its authority. “Petitioners submit that DOE does not have the authority to convert decisions by local governments or the Shoreline Hearings Board and the Growth Management Hearings Boards into federally funded or federally authorized action,” according to the petition filed Friday.