PORT ANGELES — The three Clallam County commissioners on Tuesday extended interim zoning guidelines that prohibit the subdivision of lots in the Palo Verde neighborhood northwest of Sequim.

Commissioners Steve Tharinger, Mike Doherty and Mike Chapman voted unanimously to approve the ordinance after four neighborhood residents spoke at a public hearing in favor of extending the zoning rules in the urban growth area.

The action today focused only on the division of lots in the urban growth area, but three of the four speakers also said they wanted to be out of the urban growth area altogether so that the area could be kept rural.

An urban growth area is unincorporated land adjacent to an established city, in this case Sequim, or an unincorporated village.

Under the Growth Management Act, cities may extend public utilities or annex land in an urban growth area.

For the Palo Verde neighborhood, Tuesday’s action simply “sets the status quo at whatever the lot is right now,” Clallam County Planning Director Steve Gray explained in the lead-up to the public hearing last month.

In a separate matter, a state Growth Management Act hearings board ruled last April that Palo Verde and other Sequim-area neighborhoods were zoned too rural for being so close to a city.

It was part of a wider ruling that deemed some county lands invalid and noncompliant with the 1990 act.

Clallam County is in the process of aligning its comprehensive plan and zoning code into compliance with the Growth Management Act.

Late last year, the county adopted interim zoning regulations that increased the density permitted in the Palo Verde area from two dwellings per acre to five per acre. The action was taken to comply with the Growth Management Act.

The Palo Verde neighborhood is no longer being disputed by the hearings board.

Several years ago, more than three-fourths of the Palo Verde residents signed a petition requesting removal from the Sequim Urban Growth Area. The neighborhood is south of Hendrickson Road and east of Priest Road on the edge of Sequim.

Judy Larson told the commissioners she supports the neighborhood being removed from the urban growth area because of concerns of city annexation and the cost of hooking up water and sewer systems.

“Land use in our area, over the past and present, is more consistent with a rural community character than urban,” Larson told the commissioners.

Many property owners have wells and properly functioning septic systems, she said.

Joe Borden, who originally signed the petition for removal from the UGA, has changed his mind.

“Unlike most of my neighbors, I’m on the other side of the fence,” said Borden, a 23-year Sequim resident, in the public hearing.

“I’ve done some study on my own, and I believe it’s actually in our neighborhood’s best interest to remain part of the urban growth area, because it gives us more options down the road.”

Borden cited nearby growth — the area is adjacent to Wal-Mart — for staying in the UGA.

“I don’t really believe the city wants to annex me without my permission,” he said.

“Down the road, if something happens to my well or something happens to my septic system, I would like to be able to know that there’s something else out there that I can rely on.”

Tharinger, who lives in Dungeness, said uncertainties about the neighborhood will be resolved.

“The guarantee is, we will resolve it by the end of the year,” Tharinger said

Earlier in the public hearing, Clallam County Planning Director Steve Gray gave a slide presentation with maps and strategies for Growth Management Act compliance. It echoed a presentation he made alongside Sequim city Planning Director Dennis Lefevre on May 21.

County codes

The zoning issue was the second of two public hearings. The first amended county codes dealing with purchasing of contracts and bonds, pawn brokers, dance halls, amusement devices, assembly and second-hand and junk dealers.

“All we’re doing is cleaning up the dollar amounts that are in the code to transfer those to the consolidated fee schedule each year,” County Administrator Jim Jones said.

For purchasing contracts and bonds, the county changed the bidding requirement from $2,500 to $5,000 to be consistent to state law.

“Those are minor technical changes,” Jones said.

No public comment was received on the amendments.

In other action, the commissioners reconvened later Monday to accept a bid for the Lake Crescent segment of the Olympic Discovery Trail. The base bid from Seton Construction of Port Townsend was $1,085,944.50.

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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.