County takes swift action against filling

John Henderer
The Chronicle 3/25/97

Swift action Monday banned countywide filling in the 100-year floodplain, but the action by the Lewis County Board of Commissioners also caught county planners flat-footed.

Commissioners voted 3-0 to ban filling in the floodplain moments after hearing a citizen's tale of woe involving a dispute with a neighboring property developer.

Filling involves the use of dirt or rock as a foundation for a building to raise it above the floodplain. The objection is that this process displaces water during a flood.

Tammy Baker, a Newaukum Valley area resident, said a developer near her mother's 400-acre property on Rush Road south of Chehalis won a floodplain fill permit last Tuesday after she was told by county officials that no permit was necessary.

On Thursday in Thurston County Superior Court, Baker won a temporary restraining order against Lewis County and property owner Betty Hamilton, barring "further filling and development on the Hamilton property."

The order expires Monday or once requirements under Lewis County's subdivision and flood damage prevention ordinances are met.

Baker complained of being lied to by several county bureaucrats and said they should be fired.

Baker said developer Jerry Chambers has diverted stormwater onto her mother's property, which is used to raise Christmas trees.

"They are adding tremendous amounts of fill, and it's just making (flooding) worse," she said.

Chambers could not be reached for comment by press time.

County planning officials, who were not at Monday's regular Board of Commissioners' meeting, said there is a simpler explanation: Baker didn't ask the right question.

Dennis Sabin, county building official, recalled Baker asking about the development last week, but he said she asked about the area where a proposed farm and garden store will be erected.

That area - ever since Baker won the only known local revision to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood insurance maps - is within the 500-year floodplain. It does not require a fill permit.

But a driveway to the neighboring property crosses a narrow ditch that is within the 100-year floodplain.

"I gave a permit to cross (the ditch)," Sabin said. "That's the whole issue. We had no reason to deny (the permit). We would have issued it to anybody else."

Sabin and County Planner Mike Zengel expressed surprise Monday afternoon at hearing of the moratorium on filling in the floodplain.

Commissioner Russ Wigley, who initiated the commission's action, requested a meeting with county staff to review policies on granting permits for filling in the floodplain.

"I think we should take a good look at this," Wigley said, expressing hope this can be done in a week. "I think consistency is what we're looking for. I think we can get all these problems cleaned up."

Commissioner Glenn Aldrich expressed reluctance at moving so swiftly to Baker's concerns and banning all permits as Wigley initially proposed.

"I'm a little nervous about how long we're going to hold up development in the county," Aldrich said.

Commissioners eventually amended the motion to address floodplain fill permits only.

Lewis County granted 59 permits last year to place fill material in the floodplain. It granted an average of 33 permits over the past seven years.

Baker won a revision to the U.S. Corps of Engineers' floodplain map through direct intervention from Rep. Linda Smith, R-Wash., said county officials. A black-and-white photocopied page showing the revised floodplain designation now covers the corps' color floodplain map at the county's Department of Public Services.

The revision bolstered Baker's legal battle against a neighboring gas station developer, who she said would worsen flooding by filling in the 100-year floodplain.

The Chevron gas station at Exit 72 on Interstate 5 has since been built and Baker's lawsuit against the county for issuing that permit now sits before the state Court of Appeals.