Last month, we notified you that the County’s interim subdivision ordinance, Ordinance 2019-11, adopted in December 2019 was set to expire. The purpose of the ordinance was to pause the building of some new subdivisions in our watershed while the county studied issues associated with providing legally available water under the Methow Instream Flow Rule.

 On June 17, Okanogan County adopted a new interim Ordinance (Ordinance 2020-4) to replace the original ordinance, which expired on June 18. The Ordinances have been referred to as the “Subdivision Moratorium.”

Here’s what you need to know about the new ordinance:

• This is not a complete moratorium, because it does not stop all new subdivisions or building.
• The new Ordinance has THREE exceptions in place to allow continued subdivision: the original two exceptions that allow the ordinance to affect only new subdivisions and that allow a lot with an existing home to subdivide; AND a third new exception allowing “exempt” subdivisions of 20 acres or more to proceed.
• None of the exceptions address the county’s obligation under state law to provide for legally available water, according to MVCC’s (and many others) interpretation of the law.
• The county adopted the ordinance with no more information than they had previously about how many lots can be developed, and potential impacts of new growth on available water supplies. We believe it should be the other way around – the county should know what the potential scale of development would be under the exceptions, and whether the new subdivisions have legal access to water, before including the exceptions.
• The Ordinance contains a Work Plan with a one year deadline to answer a list of questions that we agree are pertinent to the issue. Our concern is that the above exceptions allow for a potential explosion of new, unplanned growth in the valley during the next year. Homes built and lots created during this time may later be determined not to have a legal water supply. There is no process identified for answering the questions in the Work Plan.
• The Comprehensive Plan is still under development, with a schedule to achieve a final draft by this fall. We wonder how the county can have a meaningful Comp Plan that addresses water availability and sets the stage for zoning, without having the answers to any of the questions in the Work Plan first.

While Ordinance 2020-4 has already been adopted as an interim regulation, the Board County Commissioners is holding a public hearing on the ordinance on Monday, August 3, 2020 at 5:00 p.m.

We encourage you to attend this meeting (it will likely be virtual) and to submit comments that support keeping the ordinance and the work plan, but removing the exceptions until more information is available.