A storm has been brewing on Shaw Island over San Juan County’s Public Works application to label its 18 acre parcel as Essential Public Facility. The proposal recently received a Mitigated Determination of Non Significance (https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/separ/Main/SEPA/Record.aspx?SEPANumber=202501744) from the planning department. A public hearing is scheduled before the County Council May 20. Director Colin Huntemer told County Council during a June 25 public hearing that even his predecessors struggled finding enough space.

“If there is not a convenient way to dispose of trash, it doesn’t get disposed of responsibly,” Huntemer told council, explaining that Public Works is at an ‘operational cliff’ on Shaw, “The county has the choice to fill up the site, which he stated is very small, or invest in a larger facility, buying previously residential home for two million dollars. He also noted that they could make due with that site for the next 20 years, “It is not an emergency,” Huntemer told council at that time.

Public Works owns three properties on Shaw, but according to Huntemer, none met the Public Works current needs. Those requirements included material disposal site for rock dirt and other earthen materials, a burn site for woody debris, outdoor storage yard for staging and storage of road maintenance and construction equipment, a maintenance facility where County employees or contractors performing county work may access basic sanitary facilities like a bath room, place to eat shop space. The council approved the purchase of the property on June 25.

Huntemer told the Journal that this space was decided upon because it was the only property being offered for public sale that met the basic requirements, including price, size, topography, and accessibility.

A group of residents on Shaw has formed to oppose the development of the property into an essential public facility, calling themselves the Shaw Compliance Alliance. Part of their concern is the numbers of uses, included things like a concrete batch plant, that would be alloud under such a designation.

Public Works staff reiterated to Shaw Islanders during a June 7 community meeting that they have no other intended uses for the property other than those stated; shop and workspace, restroom facility and staging area for projects related to Public Works road maintenance and Parks department. It also might be used for seasonal employee housing, if necessary, to accommodate Park staff. There have been ideas batted around of other agencies using areas of the 18 acres. OPALCO was one such idea. Huntemer said Public Works was open to ideas from the public as well. He assured that if such a deal were to made, rent would be included in the negotiations.

“It doesn’t make sense,” member Lynn Bahrych said. “Spending millions of dollars on a home with a hot tub when that money could have been spent actually fixing our roads.”

Roads on Shaw, she continued, are in dire need of repair, and have been for years.

Ray Glaze lives 500 feet away from the proposed essential public facility, and agreed with Bahrych’s assessment, saying that spending two plus million dollars when roads are in need of repair did not seem logical to him.

The SEPA application submitted by Public Works also states it could potentially mean either no vehicles or up to 200 trucks a day at the site. Glaze voiced concerns to the Journal about how that might impact the current residentially zones traffic, potentially posing danger to children and other pedestrians as there are no sidewalks in the area.

Other residents are in support of a Public Works facility. A group wrote in an April 21 letter to the editor to the Journal that “Having a dedicated Public Works yard will increase efficiency and resiliency. A local yard with better facilities will allow for more efficient project completion, resulting in less disruption during road replacement, resurfacing, and ditch digging. Additionally, in the face of disaster and climate change, having material and equipment staged on-island will make for a quicker response when roads and culverts fail, making for a more resilient community.”(https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/letters/public-works-shaw-purchases-benefits-community-letter/)

The comment period for the SEPA MDNS ends May 15, and can be appealed up to 21 days after that. According to Bahrych, the current checklist used for the MDNS does not provide a complete analysis of all potential impacts from designating the site an EPF, required under SEPA’s Doctrine of Foreseeable Acts.” The doctrine requires the county to look at the purpose of the map change, Rural Farm Forest to Essential Public Facilities, and evaluate the culmulative impacts to the surrounding environment of any projets that could foreseably result from that map change. Bahrych stated that the Shaw Compliance Alliance will be appealing the SEPA MDNS should it not be withdrawn.