AB 919

This bill makes changes to shoreland zoning laws relating to the construction

of bridges and required vegetative buffer zones.

Current law requires each county to zone by ordinance all shorelands in its

unincorporated area. The Department of Natural Resources is required to

promulgate by rule shoreland zoning standards, and a county shoreland zoning

ordinance may not regulate a matter more restrictively than the matter is regulated

by a shoreland zoning standard.

Under current law, a “shoreland setback area” is an area in a shoreland that is

within a certain distance of the ordinary high-water mark in which the construction

or placement of structures has been limited or prohibited under a shoreland zoning

ordinance. Current law requires a county shoreland zoning ordinance to establish

a shoreland setback of 75 feet, but provides that a county shoreland zoning ordinance

may not prohibit the construction of certain structures within the shoreland setback

area, such as a boathouse or a structure that provides pedestrian access to the

shoreline. This bill adds that a county shoreland zoning ordinance may not prohibit

within the shoreland setback area the construction of a bridge for which DNR has

issued a bridge permit.

Under current law, a county shoreland zoning ordinance generally may not

require a person to establish a vegetative buffer zone on previously developed land

unless it allows the buffer zone to contain a viewing corridor that is at least 35 feet

wide for every 100 feet of shoreline frontage. Under the bill, the minimum width of

the viewing corridor is 35 percent of the shoreline frontage or 35 feet wide, whichever

is greater.