Call To Order
Roll Call
Committee Chair Jessica Rienstra called the meeting to order at 1:59 p.m.
in a hybrid meeting.
7 -
Present:
Elizabeth Boyle, Barry Buchanan, Ben Elenbaas, Kaylee Galloway, Jessica
Rienstra, Jon Scanlon, and Mark Stremler
Announcements
Committee Discussion
1.
Discussion of an ordinance imposing an interim moratorium on the acceptance or
processing of applications and permits for the establishment of new or expansion of
existing civil detention facilities
Rienstra stated there is a substitute ordinance and spoke about the language
that was added. She spoke about the purpose of the ordinance and stated the
proposed moratorium would temporarily prohibit Whatcom County from
accepting or approving permit applications for new or expanded civil
detention facilities related to immigration enforcement in unincorporated
Whatcom County for one year. The purpose is not to prohibit use, but to
provide time for the county to evaluate land use that is not currently defined
or specifically regulated under existing code, and determine whether
additional zoning standards, citing criteria, mitigation measures or
development regulations are needed. This will not affect the Whatcom
County jail, the Sheriff's Office operations, local police departments,
behavioral health facilities, crisis centers, or substance use disorder
facilities underneath this moratorium.
Mark Personius, Planning and Development Services Department Director,
gave input about whether an ordinance is needed and stated there are a
number of avenues in the code to explore a particular use being allowed
even if it is not stated. It is always good to try to clarify the code, so if this
is a case where we would want to have time to define it properly and
determine an appropriate permit path, that is a fine approach.
Councilmembers discussed their thoughts on the ordinance. They discussed
Whatcom County Code as it pertains to uses not listed already being
prohibited (WCC 20.20.200) and avenues under which people could seek a
permit (WCC 20.66.077 and 20.83.040), that it is important that they have
very explicit and specific code around where and how these facilities can be
sited, that if an avenue were to be pursued it would come before the Council
and they would make that decision at that time, that the moratorium would
give them time to do longer-term work on the code and prohibited uses, that
Customs has to hold people accountable and sometimes that takes
infrastructure, that the ordinance is not against the work that those who are
