Skip to main content
Loading…
This section is included in your selections.

The purpose of shoreline habitat restoration and enhancement projects is to improve ecological functions and processes necessary to maintain shoreline natural resources, protect public health and safety, and preserve beneficial uses of the shoreline.

(1) The following general regulations apply to shoreline habitat restoration and enhancement projects within shorelines:

(a) Shoreline habitat restoration or enhancement projects shall:

(i) Restore, enhance or create fish and wildlife habitat; or

(ii) Implement a recommended project from the shoreline restoration element.

(b) Shoreline habitat restoration or enhancement projects shall not adversely impact river currents, sediment processes, littoral drift, wetland or fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas.

(c) Beach enhancement shall be prohibited within spawning, nesting or breeding habitat or where littoral drift of the enhancement materials adversely affects adjacent spawning grounds or other fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas.

(d) Beach and stream enhancement shall not:

(i) Extend water-ward more than the minimum amount necessary to achieve the desired stabilization;

(ii) Result in steep contours that impede easy pedestrian passage or trap drifting sediments;

(iii) Be used solely to create new land area;

(iv) Disturb riparian vegetation or shallow water fish and wildlife habitat, unless such habitat is replaced within the earliest appropriate season by new habitat or native vegetation consistent with subsection (1)(h) of this section;

(v) Result in a beach differing in character from natural conditions historically found on the site or vicinity; or

(vi) Interfere with the normal public use of the navigable waters of the state.

(e) Lake and marine beach restoration or enhancement shall be consistent with the following:

(i) New materials added to a beach shall be of a size and composition as similar as possible to the existing natural materials, but large enough to withstand normal current, wake or wave action at the site;

(ii) The restored beach shall approximate the natural lake or marine shoreline width, height, bulk, profile, and vegetation community and structure;

(iii) Only short-term mechanical assistance may be used to accomplish planting;

(iv) Plantings must be maintained to achieve at least an 80 percent survival rate after two years of placement; and

(v) Gravel berms, drift sills and beach nourishment must be used when appropriate for the site.

(f) Stream restoration or enhancement shall be consistent with the following:

(i) Large woody debris placement, engineered log jams, bioengineering techniques, fish screens, self-regulating tide gates, removal of artificial structures and fish barriers, fishways, and stream channel improvements shall be included where appropriate;

(ii) Only short-term mechanical assistance may be used to accomplish planting;

(iii) Plantings must be maintained to achieve at least an 80 percent survival rate after two years of placement;

(iv) Size and composition of new materials added to a stream shall be as similar as possible to the existing natural materials, but large enough to withstand normal current, wake or wave action at the site; and

(v) Restoration or enhancement of the natural stream channel characteristics of length, width, gradient and sinuosity shall be included where appropriate.

(g) Stream restoration or enhancement shall not:

(i) Create barriers for juvenile or adult migrating fish;

(ii) Remove large woody material embedded in a bank or bed except in those unique circumstances where removal is necessary to successfully achieve implementation of the restoration or enhancement project;

(iii) Alter the natural stream more than the minimum amount necessary to achieve the desired restoration or enhancement;

(iv) Disturb riparian vegetation or fish and wildlife habitat unless such habitat is replaced within the earliest appropriate season by new habitat or riparian vegetation consistent with subsection (1)(h) of this section; or

(v) Create a hazard to navigation, public infrastructure, or primary structures.

(h) Restoration or enhancement of riparian vegetation shall:

(i) Replace disturbed vegetation with comparable plant species and diversity; or

(ii) Improve riparian ecological functions by increasing plant diversity and including plant species offering higher habitat values, better bank stabilization, improved water quality functions or nutrient exchange.

(2) Shoreline habitat restoration and enhancement is permitted in all shoreline environments. Shoreline modifications that are an integral and necessary component of shoreline habitat restoration and enhancement projects are allowed in all shoreline environment designations subject to the appropriate modification-specific shoreline regulations.

(3) Relief may be granted from the requirements of this chapter to property owners in urban growth areas affected by a shoreline restoration project that results in a landward shift in the ordinary high water mark when all requirements of WAC 173-27-215 are met. (Added by Amended Ord. 12-025, June 6, 2012, Eff date July 27, 2012; Amended by Amended Ord. 19-020, July 3, 2019, Eff date Oct. 14, 2019).