POULSBO — To some it’s Poulsbo Creek. To others it’s merely a drainage ditch. Either way it is an example of one of the most challenging issues facing city officials as they prepare to adopt a new Critical Areas Ordinance.

As the city council prepared to delay the adoption of the CAO until its Feb. 21 meeting, members heard from one resident who is concerned how the regulations, which are designed to provide environmental protection and set standards for development in or near environmentally sensitive areas, would affect his home.

“My house was built in 1938, and Poulsbo Creek runs on the back of my property line,” said Old Town resident Ross Lund.

If the CAO’s proposed 50-foot setback from the waterway is approved, Lund said his home would become a non-conforming property, which would limit what he could do to modify it.

The creek is a drainage ditch in some areas and runs through culverts as it makes its way up 6th Avenue behind the Hostmark Apartments and lacks a clearly defined channel overall, he said.

“I counted the homes in my neighborhood and the ordinance will impact 24 homes,” he said.

If the ordinance has a detrimental impact on the neighborhood’s property values, the residents might challenge the city in court, which would be unfortunate, Lund said.

Councilman Dale Rudolph said that very issue is one the city’s Critical Areas Working Group is tackling as it prepares to bring its recommendation to the council on Feb. 21.

“We’re trying to deal with it in a reasonable fashion,” Rudolph said.

The state’s Growth Management Act requires setbacks, but at the same time there needs to be a method for property owners to take care of their land as long as those improvements don’t adversely impact the environment, he said.

“We don’t want people to have live like it’s the 1940s,” Rudolph said.

There are ways to allow property owners to modify their existing structures within the context of the CAO, Planning Director Barry Berezowsky said.

For instance, if only one side of a structure is within a setback, an expansion could be made to any of the other sides or another level could be added, Berezowsky said.

“(Washington State Department of) Fish and Wildlife told me they in principle think that concept to be acceptable,” he said.

Having that approval is an important aspect of the city’s proposed CAO being accepted by all of the state and other agencies involved, Berezowsky said.

While the CAO working group has been greeted with approval from a broad spectrum of interested parties, it came under fire from the Johnson Creek Association, which is advocating a 300-foot wide wildlife corridor for Johnson Creek. The creek runs along the western edge of the city’s Urban Growth Area and flows from Finn Hill Road under Viking Avenue and into Liberty Bay.

“It’s like rodents chewing away at the Mona Lisa,” said JCA member Molly Lee.

The group is being manipulated by developers in an attempt to lessen the city’s environmental protections, Lee said.

“It’s a bitter pill for me, and it’s a battle between what is wrong and right,” Lee said.