Shoreline Master Plan
The Washington State Shoreline Management Act (SMA) of 1971 was enacted for the purpose of comprehensively managing and protecting the state’s shorelines. The Shoreline Management Act emphasizes accommodation of appropriate uses that require a shoreline location, protection of shoreline environmental resources and protection of the public's right to access and use the shorelines.
Under the SMA, each city and county with shorelines of the state must prepare and adopt a Shoreline Master Program (SMP) tailored to the specific geographic, economic and environmental needs of the community. The SMP is essentially a combined comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, and development permit system for shoreline-specific uses. Shorelines of the state include those lands extending landward for two hundred feet in all directions as measured on a horizontal plane from the ordinary high water mark; floodways and contiguous floodplain areas landward two hundred feet from such floodways; and all wetlands and river deltas associated with the streams, lakes, and tidal waters which are subject to the provisions of this chapter; the same to be designated as to location by the department of ecology.” (RCW 90.58.030(2)(d))
The Skagit River, as well as the adjoining jurisdictional lands, meets the definition for a shoreline of the state; therefore the City of Sedro-Woolley must have a SMP. The City completed major updates to the SMP in 2016 as required by the State; those updates went into effect June 14, 2016.
Update Process
The Washington State Department of Ecology requires that a periodic update of the city’s SMP be completed in 2021. Proposed updates will be presented for public review at the Sedro-Woolley Planning Commission. Please see the Planning Commission meetings page for links to the meeting materials, updated SMP documents and information to how to attend the virtual meeting (meetings are held virtually via Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions on in-person meetings). The City of Sedro-Woolley is accepting public comments on the proposed updates to the SMP from February 2 to March 16, 2021. Comments sent to the City of Sedro-Woolley will be forwarded to the Washington Dept. of Ecology.
The Planning Commission will be reviewing SMP related information on the following dates. More dates may be added and the listed dates are subject to change:
- January 19, 2021
- February 16, 2021
- March 16, 2021
- Public Participation Plan
- Periodic Review Checklist
- Draft Revisions to the SMP
- Notice of Public Hearing for February 16, 2021
- Draft Revisions to Appendix C – Shoreline Critical Area Regulations
- Notice of Public Hearing for March 16, 2021
Adopted SMP Documents:
- Ordinance 1847-16 updating the Sedro-Woolley SMP
- Sedro-Woolley Shoreline Management Program
- Restoration Plan - Appendix B to SMP
- Shoreline Critical Areas Regulations - Appendix C to SMP
- SMP Update Ordinance No. 1847-16
- Department of Ecology SMP Update Approval Letter
- Letter to Ecology requesting approval of adopted SMP per Ordinance 1847-16
- Draft Shoreline Inventory and Characterization Report (Appendix A to SMP – Not an adopted element of the SMP)
- Presentation from August 2011 Visioning Meeting (PowerPoint, PDF)
- Preliminary List of Information Sources by Topic – July 2011
- SMP Public Participation Plan – July 2011
- Strategy for Shoreline Use - Task 3-1