For more than fifteen years a trail on the east side of Discovery Bay has been part of the County’s legally-mandated plans, which cannot be disregarded by the County.

A.  Comprehensive Plan.

The Growth Management Act at RCW 36.70A.070 mandates that the County’s Comprehensive Plan include in its Transportation Element a “pedestrian and bicycle component” which must “include collaborative efforts to identify and designate planned improvements for pedestrian and bicycle facilities and corridors that address and encourage enhanced community access and promote healthy lifestyles.”  Jefferson County’s current Comprehensive Plan (which is in the process of being updated) now includes, at page 6-4, a corridor and trail extending from Port Townsend to Discovery Bay:

The vision for the Larry Scott Memorial Trail is to provide future generations with a safe, non-motorized recreation and transportation corridor connecting Port Townsend with rural Jefferson County. As proposed, the route extends approximately seven miles from the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven to Four Corners Road. The long-term vision is to extend the trail to Discovery Bay and eventually to points further west.

http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment/complanpdfs/2014%20Comp%20Plan/Chapter%206.pdf   This exact same language has been included in the Jefferson County’s Comprehensive Plan each year since the current Plan was adopted on August 28, 1998.  http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment/complanpdfs/2014%20Comp%20Plan/Chapter%206.pdf  

RCW 36.70A.120 requires -- using the word "shall" -- that the planning activities and capital budget decisions of a County that has adopted a Comprehensive Plan be performed in conformity with the Plan:

Each county and city that is required or chooses to plan under RCW 36.70A.040 shall perform its activities and make capital budget decisions in conformity with its comprehensive plan.  [Emphasis added.]

Thus, in conformity with its Comprehensive Plan, the County must take action to at least study the proposed trail. 

Jefferson County has acknowledged that its Comprehensive Plan was designed to guide its officials in decision-making:

The Jefferson County Comprehensive Plan is a decision-making tool for officials and citizens in guiding future growth and development in Jefferson County on a 20-year planning horizon.  It provides the community vision, goals and policy basis for the regulatory requirements of the Jefferson County Code, including Title 18 the Unified Development Code, as well as capital facilities improvements, and other County endeavors.

http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment/compplangeneral.htm  

The effectiveness the Plan is dependent on those who are supposed to implement it.  Accordingly, Jefferson County’s officials must now analyze and plan the Discovery Bay East Trail, in conformity with the Comprehensive Plan.   

B.  Non-Motorized Transportation & Recreational Trails Plan.

In 2002, Jefferson County included in its Non-Motorized Transportation & Recreational Trails Plan the Olympic Discovery Trail from Four Corners over Eaglemount and around Discovery Bay to Clallam County, designating it as a "Priority Project." http://ww w.co.jefferson.wa.us/publicworks/active_transport.asp#NMTplan  The Plan was updated in 2010, and included the following language under the heading 8.1 Multipurpose trails:

c. Develop multipurpose trail systems that connect to major destinations across county and state jurisdictional lines, such as the Olympic Discovery Trail and the Pacific Northwest Trail.

…

h. Develop multipurpose trails as separate improvements within a shared road or former railroad right-of-way alignment, such as the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) within the former right-of-way of the Seattle & North Coast Railroad (S&NCRR), to the extent amenable to adjoining property owners and as necessary to complete access.

i.  Locate multipurpose trails as separate improvements within easements across public and private lands, such as extending the Olympic Discovery Trail across Department of Natural Resources and Pope Resources timberlands and Department of Fish and Wildlife shoreline properties, where private property owners are in agreement and environmental affects [sic] are addressed.   

http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/publicworks/pdf/Non-Motorized%20Plan/2010Final/8%20Goals%20&%20Objectives.pdf   

However, notwithstanding this long-term “Priority Project” status, the main section of the trail, over Pope Resources timberlands, has not been moved forward.  The County must now act in accordance with its Non-Motorized Transportation & Recreational Trails Plan and proceed with planning for the trail.

C.  Parks, Recreation & Open Space Plan.

In 2002, the Jefferson County Commissioners adopted the Parks, Recreation & Open Space Plan.  http: //www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment/parks_plan.htm  That Plan included the following provisions:

Trail systems

a: Create a comprehensive system of multipurpose off-road trails using alignments through former MSP&P Railroad, Pope Resources, WSDOT, DNR, and USFS landholdings as well as cooperating private properties where appropriate.

b: Create a comprehensive system of on-road bicycle routes for commuter, recreational, and touring enthusiasts using scenic, collector, and local road rights-of-way and alignments throughout Port Townsend and Jefferson County, and between Jefferson, Clallam, and Kitsap Counties.

The 2015 Update of the Parks, Recreation & Open Space Plan states at page 82:

The Olympic Discovery Trail will extend from the end of the Larry Scott Trail at Four Corners on SR 20 around the southern end of Discovery Bay to Clallam County. In 2010 Jefferson County initiated development of the Olympic Discovery Trail / Discovery Bay estuary connection on the abandoned railroad grade which develops a route connection around the southern end of Discovery Bay.

http://www.countyrec.com/forms/6081_final_draft_jefferson_co_pros_062915_final.pdf   

Yet now, seventeen years after the extension of the Larry Scott Memorial Trail to Discovery Bay was first included in the Comprehensive Plan, thirteen years after it was listed as a “Priority Project” in the County’s Non-Motorized Transportation & Recreational Trails Plan, and thirteen years after it was included in the County’s Parks, Recreation & Open Space Plan, the Discovery Bay East Trail segment has still not been included in the County's TIP.  The 2015-2020 TIP, adopted by the County Commissioners on September 14, 2014, included projects for the ODT north and south segments connection, but nothing for the Discovery Bay East Trail to which the north and south sections will connect.  http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/publicworks/pdf/6-yr%20TIP%20-%20project%20list%20spreadsheet%20only.pdf  

            D.  Transportation Improvement Plan

Under RCW 36.81.121, if a county has adopted a comprehensive plan pursuant to the Growth Management Act -- as Jefferson County has -- the legislative authority of the county, after one or more public hearings thereon, must prepare and adopt a comprehensive transportation program for the ensuing six calendar years, which shall be consistent with the county’s Comprehensive Plan: 

(1) At any time before adoption of the budget, the legislative authority of each county, after one or more public hearings thereon, shall prepare and adopt a comprehensive transportation program for the ensuing six calendar years.  If the county has adopted a comprehensive plan pursuant to chapter 35.63 or 36.70 RCW, the inherent authority of a charter county derived from its charter, or chapter 36.70A RCW, the program shall be consistent with this comprehensive plan.  [Emphasis added.] 

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=36.81.121  Subsection (1) of the statute also provides:

… .  The program shall include any new or enhanced bicycle or pedestrian facilities identified pursuant to RCW 36.70A.070(6) or other applicable changes that promote nonmotorized transit. 

Jefferson County’s Comprehensive Plan has long included a new pedestrian and bicycle facility extending from the end of the Larry Scott Memorial Trail “to Discovery Bay and eventually to points further west.”  http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment/complanpdfs/2014%20Comp%20Plan/Chapter%206.pdf    Thus, RCW 36.81.121(1) mandates that the “shall include” that pedestrian and bicycle facility on its TIP.

In addition, RCW 36.81.122 requires consideration of bicycle paths, lanes, routes, roadways and improvements to be included in the County’s annual six-year comprehensive transportation program:

The annual revision and extension of comprehensive road programs pursuant to RCW  36.81.121 shall include consideration of and, wherever reasonably practicable, provisions for bicycle paths, lanes, routes, and roadways: PROVIDED, That no provision need be made for such a path, lane, route, or roadway where the cost of establishing it would be excessively disproportionate to the need or probable use.

Under this Code section, the County’s 2016-2021 TIP must include consideration of the proposed ODT extension described in the County’s Plans (as opposed to making “provisions for” the route, which is only required if after study it is determined to be “reasonably practicable”).  

Of course, compliance with the law cannot be achieved by a simple statement from some County employee or official that the County has "considered" a trail. Rather, the County must determine, through careful study and analysis, the "cost of establishing it," the "need or probable use," and whether it is "reasonably practicable."  This is exactly the kind of planning that is required in a Transportation Improvement Plan.  

In summary, as a matter of law, the County has a legal duty to consider the cost of establishing the trail, its need or probable use, and whether it is reasonably practicable to provide for it.  The County must comply with the law.  A Discovery Bay East Trail planning project must be included on the 2016-2021 TIP.

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