A major win for shoreline property owners in Burien, a split City Council voted to keep the building setback requirements at 20-feet.

The Council voted 4-3 to keep the building setback requirements at 20-feet along the marine shoreline in Burien, instead of the staff and planning commission recommendation of a combined buffer and building setback of 65-feet from the ordinary high water mark in the draft of the Shoreline Master Program (SMP).

In contrast in the proposed Shoreline Master Program in Des Moines the buffer is 150-feet from the ordinary high water mark.

Council Members Gordon Shaw, Jack Block Jr., Kathy Keene and Lucy Krakowiak voted to keep the building buffer at 20-feet.

At the July 19 Council Meeting, language was passed by the Council so the current legally existing structures along the marine shoreline would not be labeled nonconforming. But Block said because of the State regulations-which supersedes City regulations- people’s homes would still be nonconforming.

Mayor Joan McGilton said she felt the State regulations would likely be changing soon. She said when she talked to the Department of Ecology they said a bunch of jurisdictions were struggling with the same problem.

McGilton said because the shoreline is already so built out she wanted the proposed 50-foot buffer more for existing homes expanding than new developments.

Shaw said he was unconvinced of the benefit of a buffer. “If you can’t substantiate what that benefit is you shouldn’t enforce it,” Shaw said.

Development pressure will mean a density of houses as close to the shore as people are allowed to build, Council Member Brian Bennett countered.

Deputy Mayor Rose Clark admitted she had been going back and forth on the buffer width issue. Clark said she was saddened by the lack of scientific evidence about the benefit of the buffers provided during the public forums.

In the end her decision was not based on science but because of her desire to get the SMP passed.

The Council agreed more work needed to be done to mitigate the damage of storm water and waste flowing into the Puget Sound.

Buffer widths have been a contentious issue since the Shoreline Master Program update began. Homeowners along the marine shoreline worried how their property rights would be affected if their homes became non-conforming.

Among those concerns was the ability to rebuild if their home was destroyed, what non-conformance would do to their ability to sell their property and whether being non-conforming would increase, or affect their ability to get homeowners insurance.