Vancouver resident Peter Bracchi asks can Vancouver enforce a Critical Area Ordnance against developers and run a camp in the critical area?

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com

The city of Vancouver is failing to meet its commitment to clean water and “No Net Loss” in critical areas. It does not use and maintain the land and water along Burnt Bridge Creek as a regional park and the critical area that it is.

It does not enforce city codes for environmental protection and human safety.
When the city refuses to take care of our critical area and not abide by the legal land and water uses, how can they enforce the laws against the private landowners?

Our city has been failing over the last eight years to bring the Storm Water Permitted, 303d list, Fecal Coliform Contaminated, Burnt Bridge Creek into compliance with state water quality standards. This is despite Clark County paying a $3 million dollar water pollution settlement for Burnt Bridge Creek in 2013.

The city has and still approves the rights of individuals to build and homestead in our critical area without regard to our laws, ordinances and Supreme Court rulings.

An example of the problem is the organized camp run by the city for the last two years at Andresen Rd. and Burnt Bridge Creek.

Continuous outside habitation with the storage of personal property has interfered with the rights of others to use the areas for the purposes for which they were intended and creates public health and safety dangers to the public and the city’s sensitive ecological areas.

In 2018, I met with city officials and discussed the local laws that were not enforced in our regional park critical areas. I understand it takes resources of law-enforcement to protect our critical areas.

At the meeting I presented the city with the document asking them to please track the destruction incidents within the critical area so there could be remedial action for damage and eventually repair so there would be no net loss to the environment.

When there has been damage within the critical area camps by fire, clearing of trees and vegetation, shoreline destruction and water pollution the city has failed to repair, replace and stop the “No Net Loss”. This damage has been ongoing for over eight years.

As of today to the best of my knowledge the city has refused to track environmental damage in the critical areas, they always consider it just the litter pickup.

How can the city enforce the laws against the private landowners when it will not take care of the public land we the citizens own within the critical area?

Peter Bracchi
Vancouver

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