Meeting Followup
The Association's SMP Revision Subcommittee has been waiting for a copy of a Powerpoint presentation which flashed by during the CAC meeting last 11/18. The presentation listed a number of regulatory standards DPD is considering for floating homes.
There wasn't time for many questions during the meeting, but it appears that DPD wants to impose substantial restrictions on floating homes maintenance and replacement. DPD's Maggie Glowacki did send a pdf version of the presentation over last week along with a list of current conforming and non-conforming regulations for floating homes.
Sweeping Changes
Subcommittee Chair Bob Bowman says, "DPD wants to consolidate conforming and non-conforming standards, in Maggie's words 'to simplify the regulations'. I discussed this with Maggie briefly by phone. It appears that the proposal goes way beyond simplification. For example, Maggie said current regs say a conforming footprint can not exceed 1200 sq. ft. DPD proposes that when replacing a non-conforming houseboat with a footprint of 1400 sq. ft., the replacement could not exceed the 1200 ft. to meet conforming standard ..."
This suggests DPD is considering sweeping changes to the way floating homes are regulated. The Subcommittee is now scheduling a meeting in the next few weeks with Glowacki to try to obtain more information on DPD's proposals.
State of Research
The staff has also emailed the decisions taken at the meetng and a summary, which are also attached. Bob draws our particular attention to the presentation by Julie Hall from Seattle Public Utilities discussing the state of scientific research into the ecology of the local shorelines.