Partnership releases blueprint for restoring Puget Sound

Restoring Puget Sound will mean keeping sensitive land undeveloped, steering more growth into cities and encouraging low-impact construction, according a new blueprint for recovering the Sound by 2020.

The draft plan released today by the Puget Sound Partnership — a state agency created to lead the recovery — touches on a sprawling array of issues affecting the Sound, from leaking septic tanks to the loss of forests to invasive species hitching rides aboard ships.

But a common theme running through much of the report is the need to better confront how development alters the land that drains into the Sound.

"If we keep growing in the same manner we've grown up until now, we're not going to get there," David Dicks, the partnership's executive director, said this morning on the "Weekday" show on KUOW-FM 94.9.

The partnership is taking public comment on the draft for 14 days, and is scheduled to adopt a final version of the plan Dec. 1. To comment and see the plan, go to www.psp.wa.gov.

The report calls for better coordination to identify and protect habitat that's still in good shape, and to prioritize which damaged areas should be restored. It calls for a regionwide effort to steer population growth into already-developed areas. And it wants tougher regulation of new bulkheads built on beaches to protect homes.

While it also wants to encourage new technology to deal with toxic stormwater — a major problem for the Sound — it appears to steer away from wanting the technology mandated.

Environmentalists have pushed for a mandate for what's known as low-impact development, and recently won a ruling by the state board in their favor.

But developers have fiercely resisted such mandates, saying they prefer a voluntary, site-by-site approach.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com