“This is a huge document based on months and months of superfluous materials. It never got to the heart of the issue,” said Jean Sherrard, a founding member of Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners (KAPO), one of the appellants. Other appellants included Futurewise, an environmental group formerly known as 1000 Friends of Washington, and Kitsap Citizens for Responsible Planning (KCRP), which recently won an appeal of the Kingston sub-area plan.

The Kitsap County Planning Commission voted 6-3 to recommend the Kitsap County Commissioners not adopt the CAO as written and send it back to the drawing board, but were overruled when Commissioner Patty Lent cast the deciding vote in favor of it. That vote was the deciding factor for her own Republican Party to support challenger Jack Hamilton to run against her in this month’s primary election.

“We very much disagree with the Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners. We think the staff did a pretty good job, they just didn’t finish the job,” said Tim Trohimovich, a Futurewise planning director. “We hope with this appeal to finish it.”

One of KAPO’s arguments is that the county only gave the appearance of public participation and the staff failed to look at the original ordinance and show its weaknesses or strengths. “The whole function is to constrain the land, it has little to do with regulating critical areas,” Sherrard said, adding that the issue is much bigger than Kitsap County or even the state law, and it goes down to the philosophical question of land use.

KAPO has also argued that the county repeatedly refused to acknowledge as acceptable any of what is termed “Best Available Science” that didn’t agree with its pre-determined outcome — in spite of the fact it attempted to present science from recognized experts and deemed current and acceptable in other jurisdictions.

The environmental groups, on the other hand, said some of the 35-foot shoreline buffers established by the CAO are not adequate to protect the Hood Canal and Puget Sound, insisting on 150-foot buffers — which would make almost every single waterfront home in the county a non-conforming use, and set a precedent for the rest of the state. They also want to see the exemption of some wetlands removed.

The Hearings Board’s ruling will determine whether the CAO will be sent back to the county for a revision, or whether the ordinance will remain intact as adopted. Regardless of the ruling, all parties to the appeal indicated they will press on if they are not satisfied with the outcome.

“We believe we will prevail; both the law and the science are on our side,” Trohimovich said, adding that they have not discussed a possible appeal to the ruling with the other parties, but acknowledged they are likely to continue the fight.

Sherrard also did not know whether his group would continue the fight, saying it has already spent $100,000 in legal fees to get to this point, adding it is not easy to raise legal funds in an all-volunteer organization. However, he didn’t think the ruling would have the last word. “The fight has just begun in Kitsap County,” he said.