Earlier this week, the Enumclaw City Council approved a Shoreline Master Program. The next step is for the plan to go to the Department of Ecology for a review that could take up to a year. If OK’d there it would come back to the council for final approval.
The state Shoreline Management Act required the city to make the plan. The goal is protect shorelines, access to those shorelines and water use from those shorelines.
The act is for lakes 20 acres or larger, which Enumclaw has none, and streams that flow 20 feet per second. Enumclaw has three: At the Foothills Trail, Enumclaw Golf Course and at Mahler Park. Access to all three needs to be provided. It effects 209 acres. The act also applies to marine waters, floodways, wetlands and all waters associated with them.
The Big Spring Creek restoration plan and relocation of Boise Creek on the golf course are in the plan. Those projects cannot lead to any net loss of shoreline, according to the act.
“There actually will be a net improvement of ecological function,” Community Development Director Erika Shook said.
The only concern raised about the local plan was from the Muckleshoot Tribe. They just wanted to emphasize that Boise Creek fishery is protected by treaty so it cannot be degraded. Salmon recovery is a key part of the act, along with protecting “valuable, fragile” land, Shook said.
She said in general the goal is to have policies and regulations in place relating to use and development of shorelines.
