2014 CAPR Legal Fund Wrap Up! 2014 - A BUSY YEAR FOR THE CAPR LEGAL FUND With Your help, this past year has turned out to be the busiest and most active for the CAPR Legal Fund since the King County Critical Areas Ordinance battle in the mid 2000’s. And with rulings expected on several Legal Fund actions, 2015 should be eventful! We are waiting for a court date to be set by the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals in our suit filed on behalf of the Mills family. The challenge was filed as a Citizens’ Lawsuit in federal court and alleges that the City of Duvall, WA has violated the Clean Water Act by losing control (dumping) of its storm water on the Mills’ property causing flooding and property damage. Duvall maintains that, yes it is using the Mills’ property as part of its storm sewer system and that it is legal in doing so. The laws suggests otherwise. A positive ruling would not only help the Mills family but also many other property owners in similar situations. In November the Washington Supreme Court notified the San Juan chapter of CAPR that it will review the lower court rulings in CAPR San Juan’s challenge against San Juan Co. In that action CAPR filed suit alleging that San Juan Co. violated the Washington Open Public Meetings Act when the County approved a new Critical Areas Ordinance without the required citizen input. A favorable ruling here would not only reset the CAO approval process but also reinforce statewide the right of citizens to be involved. CAPR thanks five different major organizations who have filed “friend of the court” briefs to the Court in support of our case. The Legal Fund is awaiting a ruling by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) in CAPR’s challenge to the Jefferson Co. Shoreline Master Program (SMP). That SMP which was basically force-fed to the County by the Washington Dep’t. Of Ecology will trash shoreline property rights and values with little environmental benefit. Regardless of how the GMHB rules, the Legal Fund is sure to be in court battling the extreme environmental organizations that have vowed to keep the SMP intact. In an interesting side note, the Jefferson Co. planner who helped ferry DOE’s plan through the process was hired by DOE after the Program’s passage. Hmm… During 2014 CAPR has filed detailed comments in several new “rules” changes which will give the Legal Fund standing to fight new policies which go way beyond any environmental protections and attempt to expand jurisdiction of the agencies. These include the Washington Hydraulic Code and the new Spokane River / W.R.I.A 15 rules. Similarly our Plumas / Sierra (counties) chapter has established standing and is poised for a David and Goliath fight against a powerful and extreme environmental group that wants to end development in the rural Plumas Co. with a good chance that David will win. Add to the above the many informational events put on by our local chapters and the day long “Workshops” presented the day of our annual Banquet and you can see why it has been a very busy and productive year! CAPR Legal Fund thanks all who have donated to help us fight for your property rights, one of our most basic freedoms. Your financial support has been key to our work. If you haven’t donated previously, please consider doing so. For those who have donated, both large and small gifts, we say again “Thank you!” and don’t quit!! We all still have much to do in 2015!!! You can help wrap up this year with your tax deductible gift to CAPR Legal Fund! CAPR Legal Fund is a registered 501(c) (3) organization. All donations are tax deductible. If you prefer to use the USPS as opposed to an online donation, a printable mail-in donation page is available on our website: http://www.capr.us/PDFs/DonationForm3.pdf or if online is more your style the donation link on the CAPR website is here: http://www.capr.us/capr_pp_donate.php Thank You For Your Continued Support of CAPR Legal Fund!
December 19, 2014