A road cut down a steep section of bluff alongside a closed portion of Wilkinson Road embarrassed a South Whidbey family, enraged some environmentalists and slow-growth proponents, and placed Island County’s permit enforcement procedure under the microscope this week.

The road cut, which was made on a decades-old, unmaintained road on Waterman Trust property last December, apparently violated a number of land use rules. Work done by Danny Waterman to restore the old road felled dozens of large alders and left a wide gash of sandy soil exposed from Wilkinson Road to an old dock once used by the Waterman lumber mill to ship wood chips off the island.

The work, which was done in proximity to landslides that forced the county to close a portion of Wilkinson Road two years ago, caught the attention of a number of people this week, including the Island County Planning Department, which is now working with the Waterman family to provide after-the-fact logging and grading permits. Also of concern to the planning department is debris that was dropped in and around a small stream on the property and the proximity of the work to an active eagle’s nest.

Though he said the work could draw fines and other sanctions, planning director Phil Bakke said his agency may choose to avoid taking punitive action since land-use enforcement personnel got an immediate response from the Waterman family when it cited the violations. However, the permits are not going to come easily either. Bakke said the project must go through a full environmental review, and it will require work to shore up slide-prone areas.

“It’s not going to be a determination of non-significance,” he said, referring to a designation that goes to land use projects judged as having little or no impact on the surrounding natural environment.

Bakke and Waterman trust spokeswoman Deborah Waterman said Thursday the violations on the remote piece of property were unintentional and were largely unknown to both until this week.

“It was negligent but not intentional,” said an apologetic Waterman Thursday.

When a permit application sign went up on a rock near the work this week, it was clear the Waterman Trust had already begun to take steps to limit the damage. Larry Kwarsick, Island County’s former public works director who was working this week as a consultant for the trust, said plans for the work are being scaled back. Instead of reopening as a vehicle road to the old “chip dump” dock, the path down the bluff will become pedestrian-only access.

Kwarsick said he and the trust are working with the county on mitigation measures intended to protect the bluff and fix the damage done in December. He said he has started designing a revegetation plan that calls for the planting of a number of Douglas fir trees on the hillside. The Waterman Trust has also hired Island Asphalt to build a drainage and retention system that will minimize runoff damage.

Noting that a geotechnical inspection this week showed the bluffside to be stable at the moment, Kwarsick said he can see why phone calls and e-mails protesting the work rushed into the planning department this week.

“Boy, is it ugly,” he said.

The incident could become a jumping off point for Island County citizens who want to see more punch in the county’s land use enforcement policies. Tom Fisher, president of the Island County Smart Growth Coalition, said that while he is encouraged by the Waterman family’s desire to fix the damage done at the Wilkinson Road property, future violators need to know there are bigger penalties than fines, liens and development moratoriums in use now. Fisher was one of many people who had contact with the planning department this week about the Waterman work.

“We’re concerned the enforcement procedures are pretty toothless,” he said. “It needs to be an overhaul with some mechanisms that work.”

Those mechanisms could include fines levied against permit violations in all cases, not just those in which violators are resistant.

For her part, Deborah Waterman said she will do whatever it takes to meet county and state land use, forestry and habitat protection regulations.

“Our intent is to go above and beyond the restoration the county is asking us to do,” she said.