Certificate Program Completed

I just completed a Certificate Program in Environmental Law and Regulation at the University of Washington. The program culminated in three nights of practicum project presentations in which teams of three or four students presented the projects they had been working on throughout the year. My group project looked at ways conservation land trusts and community land trusts could collborate to conserve open space while providing affordable housing. Our project paper and presentation – Conservation Land Trust/Community Land Trust – as well as other class projects can be found at http://courses.washington.edu/envlaw/fall. Click on “Practicum Projects Archives” on the left-hand side of the page.

Land Use Seminar

I’ve just spent the last two days at a Land Use in Washington seminar offered through the locally-based organization Law Seminars International. The audience consisted of lawyers and other land use/environmental professionals (realtors, appraisers, planners, agency staff, city/county employees) and the agenda was jam-packed with speakers from pretty much the same groups of people (but mostly lawyers).

Some of the topics were: surviving the down economy; land use planning and municipal water supplies; the integration of the Shoreline Management Act and the Growth Management Act; Low Impact Development; 2009 legislative session and key legal decisions updates; sustainable shoreline development; and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s revised flood-plain mapping.

One of the most interesting segments was on climate change and land use regulations. Currently, said presenter Rod Brown of Cascadia Law Group in Seattle, climate change is not expressly addressed in any land use laws or regulations. The State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) will likely incorporate greenhouse gas emissions evaluations into its checklists within the next two or three years, but better mechanisms would be amending the Growth Management Act (GMA) and the building codes (the command and control approach) and market-based cap and trade systems.

One example Mr. Brown gave of an upcoming issue is the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel. The tunnel’s life expectancy would be 30 to 100 years. Climate change-driven sea level increases in Puget Sound are projected to be between three and 22 inches by the year 2050 and between six and 50 inches by 2100. If the tunnel’s design has motor vehicles descending into the tunnel, this could mean that by the time it’s built, sea water could be following the cars into the tunnel (as Rod put it). Something else to ponder: the planned seawall replacement along Seattle’s waterfront is expected to accommodate only an 11-inch rise in sea level.

Environmental Law & Regulation Certificate Program

In order to increase my knowledge of environmental law, I’m currently enrolled in University of Washington’s Environmental Law & Regulation Certificate Program and will complete the program in June. Here is an article about the program that I wrote for the January issue of the King County Bar Bulletin:

Extension Program Opens New Windows
By Maura Kelley Deering

About 30 of us gathered in the basement of the Electrical Engineering Building on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus for the first class of the Environmental Law and Regulation certificate program. Offered through University of Washington Extension, the program is designed for those who seek to understand the complex regulatory context in which environmental decisions are made.

Over the course of nine months (September 2008–June 2009), we will take three courses: “The Environment’s Regulatory Context” in the fall; “Environmental Regulation: Laws and Institutions” in winter; and in the spring we will complete a “Practicum Project in Environmental Regulation.” At the end of the program, we will have an understanding of environmental regulation, as well as familiarity with key laws that have the greatest influence on the management of natural resources. And upon completion of the practicum project, we also will have produced a deliverable to a real client and made valuable contacts.

According to UW Extension’s website, the certificate program is geared toward employees of municipal, state and federal agencies charged with environmental responsibilities, conservationists, developers, environmental consultants, attorneys and concerned citizens. We have representatives from each of those groups in class. There are practicing attorneys, longtime volunteers and non-profit employees, college graduates deciding on career or graduate school paths, people looking to change jobs, and agency and private sector staff seeking more in-depth knowledge of environmental laws and regulations.

As of this writing, we are in Week 7 of the fall quarter. The class meets once a week on Wednesdays from 6-9 p.m. So far, class time has been focused on the general overview of state and federal environmental laws, including their historical development. We also spent one class studying tribal law. Guest speakers have included environmental attorneys from private firms and the Port of Seattle, as well as the planning director at Futurewise (who also will be our instructor during the winter quarter). We have weekly readings and have periodically been assigned case studies, where we read about real-life issues and post our analyses on the class blog.

This week, we are preparing for a simulated negotiation, which will take place in Week 8. Our instructor, David Tetta, a policy adviser and information systems specialist at the Environmental Protection Agency, has handed out background documentation and assigned us roles as tribal members, environmentalists, developers, Department of Ecology staff and representatives from local government. During tonight’s class, the various groups met to formulate their negotiating strategies.

The last assignment due this quarter is an evaluation of a public meeting that we have attended (or will soon attend) this fall. I attended the Seattle Neighborhood Summit, which took place at City Hall on October 28. Representatives of neighborhood community councils and other groups from throughout the city gathered to discuss present and future issues facing neighborhoods, and to formulate questions for City Councilmembers Sally Clark and Tom Rasmussen, who were on hand during the last hour of the event. Among the environmental concerns raised were air quality, pollution, and public health and land-use issues, such as incentive zoning and neighborhood plan updates.

After the holiday break, we will reconvene with our winter quarter instructor Tim Trohimovich for more-detailed discussions of environmental legislation; federal statutes such as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act; state laws such as the Growth Management Act and the Shoreline Manage ment Act; and local ordinances that address critical areas and land-use planning at the city and county level.

We looked ahead to spring quarter during Week 5 when we were visited by three participants from last year’s program, as well as the spring quarter instructor, James Shellooe, the Seattle area manager at AMEC Earth and Environmental, who talked about the practicum project. We were encouraged to begin forming groups of three or four to begin discussing possibilities for our project and potential clients. So far, one of the other attorneys in the class with an interest in land use and I are starting to talk about a possible project involving land trusts.

Examples of titles of projects from previous years are: Suquamish Tribe’s Assessment of the Proposed Development of the Kitsap Lake Technology Park; Salmon Stocks Restoration in the Green-Duwamish River System; Land Bank Plan for Brownfield Redevelopment in the Duwamish Corridor; Alaska Way Viaduct Restoration Alternatives — Environmental Considerations; Land Stewardship: Balancing Conservation and Sustainable Development in the Fate of a Dairy Farm; and Urban Village Development in the Context of the Growth Management Act.

More information about the Certificate Program in Environmental Law and Regulation can be found at http://www.extension.washington.edu/ext/certificates/env/env_gen.asp.