Coastal district extension bill moving

Timing important since 2005 extension of original deadlines gave Alaska districts until March 1 to have revised plans in place

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Senate Resources passed out a bill extending by six months the deadline for coastal districts to file revised plans necessary under changes the Legislature made to the Alaska Coastal Management Program in 2003.

A committee substitute for Senate Bill 46, sponsored by Sen. Donny Olson, D-Nome, was approved by Senate Resources Jan. 29, a Finance Committee referral was waived and the bill was in Senate Rules Jan. 31.

Timing is crucial since a 2005 extension of the original deadlines gave districts until March 1, 2007, to have revised plans in place, a deadline most districts are not going to meet, Randy Bates told the committee.

Among the 2003 reforms, said Bates, acting director of the Office of Project Management and Permitting in the Department of Natural Resources, were revisions of all coastal district plans, with a deadline for submission of new plans of July 1, 2005, and a sunset for existing plans of July 1, 2006.

The coastal management program was described at the time of the legislative changes as an older program which hadn’t adequately responded to change in Alaska statutes. It was also described as unpredictable and overly broad, resulting in delays in permits.

The coastal program gives local communities a seat at the table for decisions about developments in their areas.

Original timeframes ‘aggressive’

The original timeframes were “aggressive,” Bates said and in 2005, the Legislature extended the deadlines by eight months: to March 1, 2006, for plan submittal and to March 1, 2007, for sunset of the old plans.

Twenty-eight of 35 coastal districts submitted revisions by the 2006 deadline, Bates told the committee. Of those plans, two will be implemented and effective prior to March 1 while 12 plans are near completion and ready for implementation as soon as they have local approval.

Those 14 districts, Bates said in a Jan. 16 memo, have plans approved by the DNR Commissioner and the federal Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

Other plans were under review by OCRM (Municipality of Anchorage) or have been approved by the DNR Commissioner but the coastal districts have requested mediation of the DNR Commissioner’s decision (Bristol Bay CRSA, City and Borough of Juneau and Northwest Arctic Borough).

Nine coastal districts either submitted plans late to the Office of Project Management and Permitting (after the Aug. 16, 2006, date established by OPMP for priority processing) and are still under review, or were voluntarily withdrawn by the coastal district for revision. This group includes some of the largest coastal zone areas in the state, among them the Aleutian East Borough, Bering Straights CRSA, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Kodiak Island Borough, Lake and Peninsula Borough and North Slope Borough.

The Palin administration and OPMP support the bill, Bates told the committee. Coastal districts which testified were also in support.