County Commissioner Ann Samuelson met with a representative from Representative Wu’s office today to send a message back to Wu. “Don’t wipe the slate clean,” Samuelson asked Stephen Marx to convey to Wu, “acknowledge all the work done in open, due process. Acknowledge the memorandum of understanding we made with Bradwood. People participated openly and were listened to.” County staff helped Samuelson tally up the time spent in hearings. Four days of public testimony were taken, with one of the days going over 13 hours. Two days the planning commission took 45 motions while they worked through recommendations to make to the Board of County Commissioners.
“We have put conditions and safeguards on this application,” Samuelson stated, “I really don’t see how we could have made it any safer. The public can be proud of the fact that before a development permit is issued the Emergency Responders must sign off that their needs have been satisfied. This took a lot of work from a lot of people.”
Samuelson looked in tired awe at the 31 volumes of paperwork being prepared to be sent to the Land Use Board of Appeals in response to an appeal filed by applicants opposing the variances that the county had awarded Bradwood. 21,000 pages of findings filled the volumes. In addition to the findings of fact another 30,000 pages of support documents, older versions of plans and proposals that were discarded, letters and emails also fill files. According to county staff, eventually much of it will be scanned onto a CD so that those who put in a public request will have it available in an easier form than having to wait for staff to copy thousands of pages of material.
Samuelson would like those at the state level to look at how hard one local government has worked with an LNG corporation while they consider whether or not to support Senator Wyden’s bill to amend the Energy Act by repealing FERC’s authority over citing LNG facilities. “We deserve to be acknowledged for this hard work,” Samuelson said, “the county staff worked hard, a lot of people did. This shouldn’t be seen, or treated, as a wasted effort. And I believe it should be made perfectly clear that no commissioner voted on an LNG issue. They voted on land use issues. I have never stated an opinion on LNG. I wasn’t voting on the industry, I was making a land use decision.”
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