Discussion is winding down on Burien’s Shoreline Master Program (SMP), as it continues moving closer to adoption by the City Council.

Compared to earlier proceedings the public comments were fairly agreeable during the public hearing for the SMP, after the Council made significant concessions to marine shore homeowners at the August 16 council meeting.

The Council voted to keep the building setbacks along the residential marine shoreline at 20 feet, instead of raising it to a combined buffer and setback of 65 feet; they resolved the biggest issue affecting shoreline homeowners.

If the SMP had passed with the 65 setback and buffer along the marine shoreline, all of the homes that were not 65 feet back from the ordinary high water mark would become non-conforming.

This raised citizen concerns about whether they could rebuild their home if it was destroyed, how non-conformance would affect their property values and their ability to sell their home and uncertainty about insurance for their home.

While the Council and City staff worked to form legislation addressing those fears with a 65 foot buffer and setback the problem was eliminated when the Council voted to retain the setback currently in place along the shoreline.

In the draft of the SMP being discussed at the public hearing all of setbacks, including around Lake Burien and Seahurst Park were taken out as well. Burien Resident Chestine Edgar said the setbacks along Lake Burien and Seahurst Park were taken out of the draft when she did not believe that had been the decision of the Council at the previous meeting.

Public access to Lake Burien, another contentious issue throughout the SMP process, was discussed during the public hearing. Lee Moyer, who was on the SMP Advisory Committee, spoke out for public access to the Lake. He said there is a very real danger of invasive species being introduced to the Lake he does not feel allowing public access to the Lake will necessarily cause the introduction of invasive species.

Kim Otto, who lives on Arbor Lake, said she too would like to see public access to Lake Burien. She said if the public is not allowed to launch boats on the Lake then the same rule should apply to the homeowners along the lake. She said if the homeowners are allowed access to the Lake when the rest of the public is not it is discrimination.

“I would like to stress the water is public,” Otto said.

Sandy Gledhill-Young spoke against the image of the rich people hogging the Lake, keeping the ‘downtrodden poor residents’ out. She said the Lake’s ecosystem is fragile and cannot handle a bunch of extra people using it. “Public access would be problematic at best,” she said.

Burien does not do any maintenance or work on the Lake, it is kept up by the residents who live along the Lake.

The Burien City Council will discuss the SMP at a meeting on September 13, beginning at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than their normal time. The SMP is tentatively scheduled to be passed on September 20, unless everything is worked through and it passes on the 13. After it is approved by the Burien City Council it will be passed on to the Department of Ecology for final approval before implementation.