City of Newport and the towns of Cusick, Ione, Metaline and Metaline Falls – Shoreline Master Program: Comprehensive Update and Periodic Review

The comment period for the city of Newport and towns of Cusick, Ione, metaline and Metaline Falls comprehensive update is now closed.

We held a public comment period on the cities and town's proposed comprehensive update to their shoreline master program (SMP). The period for public comment was from Oct. 30 to Nov. 29, 2024. We sent mail and email notices to notify those who had expressed prior interest. Two unique comments were received. Comments were primarily focused on Shoreline Riparian Buffers, Monitoring and Adaptive Management, and Critical Area Assessments.

Response to public comment

We prepared a summary of public comments and sent this to the city of Newport and towns of Cusick, Ione, Metaline, and Metaline Falls. The city and towns prepared their response to comment and provided to us on Feb. 6, 2025.

Next steps: our decision

We will decide if the city and towns proposed amendment meets the requirements of the Shoreline Management Act and the Shoreline Master Program Guidelines. We will decide whether to:

Approve the program as is.
Approve with recommended changes.
Send the proposed program back to the city and towns with required changes to meet statutory and rule requirements. Recommended changes may also be included with the required changes.

Relevant documents will be posted on this website when they become available, please check back.

Comprehensive update

The city and towns intend to adopt the Coalition's SMP to serve as their respective SMP’s. The city and towns have actively participated in the periodic update of the SMP.

The comprehensively updated Pend Oreille Regional Partnership SMP includes locally tailored goals, policies, regulations, environment designations, and administrative provisions to reflect current conditions and community vision for the future shoreline use and development. The updated SMP prioritizes water-oriented activities, public access, habitat protection, and ecological restoration, and allows for legal existing uses and structures to continue.

Periodic review

The Coalition's comprehensive update was approved by us in 2013. The Coalition, including the city of Newport and the towns of Cusick, Ione, Metaline and Metaline Falls, conducted a periodic review of that comprehensively updated SMP as required by the Shoreline Management Act in RCW 90.58.080(4). As a result of the SMP periodic review the Coalition's SMP amended the comprehensively updated SMP to address items on our SMP periodic review checklist and to:

Include the city of Newport and towns of Cusick, Ione, Metaline and Metaline Falls as part of the Coalition and reference to the City and Towns within the text.
Add Shoreline Environment Designation (SED) maps for the city and towns.
Clarify Tribal jurisdiction.
Remove signage standards.
Increased the exemption limit for substantial development and docks.
Add Oldney’s pond as a body of water under jurisdiction of the SMP.
Add new regulations for boat ramps.
Add and update definitions.
General reorganization, reformatting and administrative revisions.

The city and towns locally adopted the Coalition's SMP, with periodic review amendments as follows:

The city of Newport – Ordinance No. 2113, adopted Oct. 2, 2023
The town of Cusick – Ordinance No. 2023-01, adopted Oct. 3. 2023
The town of Ione – Ordinance No. 645, adopted March 6, 2024
The town of Metaline – Ordinance No. 250, adopted Sept. 13, 2023
The town of Metaline Falls – Ordinance No. 355, adopted Feb. 13, 2024

These local ordinances were submitted to us starting on March 5, 2024, with additional materials and ordinances received between April 4 and Aug. 8, 2024. We determined their submittal to be complete on Aug. 14, 2024.

Documents for public review

Note: all documents are PDF