35.30.020 General shoreline buffer and vegetation policies.
(1) Buffers should be established and maintained along all marine and freshwater shoreline water bodies to protect people and property from risks associated with flooding, bank erosion, channel migration, bluff recession, landslides, storm surges, sea level rise, tsunamis and other hazards.
(2) To protect the ecological and aesthetic qualities of the shoreline environment and minimize adverse impacts associated with shoreline development, new shoreline uses and developments should be separated and set back from the edge of the shoreline water body. The area between the water body and the development should be retained in a well vegetated and mostly undisturbed condition.
(3) A buffer zone of natural vegetation should be established and maintained along all shoreline water bodies so that shorelines can erode and aggrade naturally without posing a risk to the adjacent structures and prompting the need for structural armoring.
(4) Buffers composed of predominantly native vegetation should be established and/or preserved along all shorelines to:
(a) Protect the health and sustainability of the many fish and wildlife species that depend on the County’s lakes, rivers, and marine waters for food, cover, breeding, resting, rearing, and other essential life functions.
(b) Provide clean water for recreation, fishing, shellfish production, and other beneficial uses.
(c) Protect people and property from hazards associated with floods, storm surges, landslides, erosion, migrating river channels, tsunamis, and other natural processes or events.
(d) Minimize the costs that the public would have to bear to protect properties in hazardous areas or to repair damages associated with floods and other hazards.
(e) Maintain the aesthetic values that natural and scenic shorelines provide.
(f) Ensure no net loss of shoreline ecological functions.
(5) Shoreline buffers should be preserved in a predominantly natural and undisturbed state except that reasonable accommodation should be made for views, pedestrian access, and water-related use/development when it is otherwise consistent with this Program.
(6) Development proposals that involve extensive vegetation removal to create views or expansive lawns should not be allowed. Property owners should not assume that an unobstructed view of the water is guaranteed.
(7) The goals of preserving and restoring vegetation along shorelines should be balanced with the need to accommodate preferred shoreline uses and developments and provide views of the shoreline.
(8) New developments and uses should be designed to minimize tree removal and vegetation clearing. Existing trees and shrub cover should be preserved, and where feasible, restored, to provide wildlife habitat, maintain water quality, and ensure soil and slope stability.
(9) Allow for the short-term alteration of buffers to restore and enhance buffer ecological functions, including the control of invasive and non-native species.