Bacon newsletter spotlights county workload, shoreline and drainage concerns

A 2-to-1 Island County vote kept Robinson Beach boat ramp and Cornet Bay Dock projects moving, even as commissioners wrapped a final cleanup of the 2025 budget and faced fresh pressure on shoreline and drainage issues that reach into daily life.

Commissioner Melanie Bacon said the budget amendment passed after additional revenues were used to offset additional expenses. The capital improvement program amendment covered last year’s six-year project list, not the county’s first draft of the new cycle, but it still drew division because it touched two high-profile public access sites tied to boating and waterfront use. Bacon’s update also pointed to a full hearing calendar ahead, with land-use and service items continuing to stack up into May and June.

The sharpest policy fight remains Mutiny Bay. County documents describe a shoreline-protection proposal affecting 14 adjoining single-family lots at 6376 to 6420 South Bay Road in Freeland, along a roughly 700-foot stretch of shoreline. A 2023 geotechnical report said winter storms had caused significant property damage and flooding at the site, while wave action was eroding the shoreline and threatening existing residences. The proposal called for a multi-parcel vinyl sheet bulkhead within the marine buffer, a type of protection that has kept the project in county review and appeal channels since permit 031/23 was denied administratively on Sept. 29, 2023. The Island County Hearing Examiner later upheld the denial, but stayed its effect for six months to give the applicant time to come into compliance.

Bacon said six citizens used the April 21 public comment period to press a range of local concerns, including Deer Lake HOA code changes, stronger shoreline protection for Mutiny Bay, ditch and drainage problems in a Camano neighborhood, and support for a housing project in Langley. That mix shows how county government is being pulled at once toward stormwater, shoreline stabilization, housing and neighborhood code enforcement.

The board was scheduled to meet again at 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 28, followed by the Elected Officials and Department Heads RoundTable from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Bacon said she would miss next week’s short meeting and RoundTable while she takes the week off, and there will be no newsletter the following Friday. The next BOCC work session is set for Wednesday, May 6, while the county’s shoreline rules continue to govern marine waters around Whidbey, Camano and the smaller islands, plus shorelands extending 200 feet inland from the ordinary high-water mark.