PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners Monday accused Sequim-area Realtors of trying to pack a meeting on the Elwha Dungeness Watershed Plan with panicky property owners.
Realtors responded that commissioners were giving up local control of land use to the state.
The heated exchange came as commissioners received a staff briefing Monday on Watershed Resource Inventory Area 18, or WRIA 18, that included plans for a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Sequim High School cafeteria, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
The meeting — and one at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 8 at Roosevelt Middle School, 106 Monroe Road, Port Angeles — will be the latest in a series of sessions at which water planners explain details of the proposal to interested parties.
WRIA 18 is one of 23 areas across Washington where the state will try to balance — with local input — the water needs of people, salmon and wildlife.
The effort has squared off Realtors and developers against conservationists in the four years it has been discussed, especially as the plan nears implementation by county commissioners.
Monday was no exception.
“I hope people will be coming with suggestions for changes,” said Commissioner Mike Chapman, R-Port Angeles.
“Are the Realtors ever going to come up with suggestions, or are they just going to complain?”
