Articles

For nearly a decade, PLF was locked in litigation with Kitsap County over its critical areas ordinance.  Although the ordinance was ultimately upheld, we scored quite a few wins along the way. One of those wins may have turned the tide on a growing trend among local governments of addressing conflicts between homes and newly adopted regulations by ...

Seattle's newest waterfront attraction, the so-called "Great Wheel," is a sadly ironic reminder of how truly messed up our priorities are in the Pacific Northwest.  At the same time that we are glorying at the Great Wheel, local governments across the state are adopting shoreline regulations declaring waterfront homes "nonconforming uses," with the ...

Washington's state and local governments are determined to take control over privately owned shorelines away from property owners. Over the past several years, we have seen wave after wave of regulations trying to claim the shorelines. The most recent regulatory push has targeted the permit process as the best opportunity for the government to forc ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges Yesterday, Washington's Supreme Court issued a short decision in Citizens for Rational Shoreline Planning v. Whatcom County, ruling that the State Department of Ecology is the entity ultimately responsible if a local government's shoreline master program violates the law.  A simple proposition that brings with it chill ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges For years, Washington's Department of Ecology has been trying to determine the source of pollutants entering Puget Sound.  The presumption, of course, has been that those dastardly humans who have the gall to live in a home and drive to work – god forbid that they take a trip to one of those maligned strip malls – are ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges Earlier this year, Whatcom County ended its decade-long legal battle to prevent Lummi Island resident Victoria Luhrs from building a shore defense work that is necessary to protect her home from the damage due to wave attack and shoreline erosion.  And in so doing, the County backed off a harmful policy of valui ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges Washington State requires local governments to continuously adopt, amend, and revisit their land use codes every 5-7 years to meet the moving targets of the state's environmental and growth management policies.  For years, property owners have complained about the massive cost imposed by the state's shifting developmen ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges Last week, I wrote about PLF's victory in the regulatory takings case, Dunlap v. City of Nooksack.  Well, I want to take a moment to recognize the property owners in this case, Kipp and Marilyn Dunlap.  The Dunlaps are cattle farmers who own land in the City of Nooksack, a small town just south of the Canadian bo ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges Earlier this year, PLF stepped in to help Kipp and Marilyn Dunlap protect themselves against an uncompensated taking of their vacant residential lot in Nooksack, Washington (located just south of the Canadian border).  As you may recall, the Dunlaps purchased a quarter-acre lot with the dream of building their home the ...