SJC COUNCIL TUESDAY SPECIAL MEETING ON ORCAS ISLAND
Tuesday, Dec 8 from 10:30 AM until 3:00 PM
Location: Eastsound Fire Station, 45 Lavender Lane, Orcas Island
Description: The SJC Council SPECIAL MEETING on Orcas Island for Public Hearing on the Eastsound Subarea Plan will be opened. However, Council Chair Jarman and staff will attend by teleconference due to the ferry breakdown.
Apart from everything else, this proposed plan would establish a Public Parking Authority, another junior taxing district, it appears, and would allows developers to continue to pay cash in lieu of parking, a plan that has failed miserably over the past decades. Why do we need a new authority? Will it be subject to federal standards? We are a rural area and Eastsound is an UGA only in the planners’ dreams. It’s a village.
Second, the much questioned “Transportation Hub” remains in the plans. For use by the buses and parking shuttles. Does this begin to sound like SEATAC? In addition it is supposed to concentrate all other “transportation functions” such as rideshare. All in that plot of land now allocated to a community garden.
It is well-established that the “complete streets” approach to development is something that DOES NOT WORK and does not belong in rural areas. We are in a rural area.
This and much more awaits anyone with the time and energy to read these materials. There is a commitment for the County to buy up the rights-of-way in Eastsound. I haven’t had time to finish reading the rest.
These are COMMITMENTS to which County Council is agreeing, right now. They are not pie-in-the-sky.
P.S. It was my understanding that this was a simple measure to move certain existing provisions into the code, NOT to create new and Disneyland-scale “improvements” in Eastsound.
Thank you, Peg – I’m glad someone else is paying atttention! Our little village is being thrown under the bus and no one will be the wiser for it. How they continue to NOT call this a total re-write and reformatting is flabbergasting. I have been trying to read it – the original document was readable. This is not; and I’m pretty familiar with the “existing” Plan they had. However, that said, while we were busy with the CAO, changes were made to the SubArea Plan that I totally missed. All I know is that their idea of “streamlining” the Plan only “streamlines” it for one purpose – maximum development possible for every parcel in the UGA and surround. Eastsound Swale was further thrown under the bus (if that is even possible.) There are so many inappropriate land uses – both past and continuing. The character of our “rural walking village” (which would certainly help the parking issue!) is turned into a mishmash of traffic nightmares, inappropriate land uses for the land use zones, and utter trashing of any Critical Areas left. No matter how they deny it, this is an entire new document.
The hearing was posponed…. so….Special Meeting? What was discussed, and by whom? Was this another chance for the Public to ask questions about the documents and changes? If so, is there a recording of the teleconferenced meeting for us to watch? If not, is there a report on what was said? Margie? Did you cover this one and can we look for an article soon?
I am really confused! Was there, or was there not, a hearing today, December 8th? I was told that since Bob Jarman wasn’t there, that we could not have a hearing or comment. This seems a poor way to inform the Public if they want participation and allow comment.
Sadie, they could not have a formal meeting due to the ferry problem. Bob and the rest of staff coming from San Juan were unable to get to Orcas. Rick opened the meeting with the others on speakerphone, Rick, Bob and Jamie are extending the meeting until this Friday here on Orcas.
Clyde
22 days and counting. That is how many days our council has to opt out of the Growth Management Act.
https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2013-14/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/6194.E.pdf
This will not happen but I am still puzzled as to why we would want to plan under this act when we are a small rural county. I may have missed it but I haven’t heard one council member even mention or entertain this idea. Our State Legislators gave us and other rural counties an opportunity to opt out of something that they realized didn’t work for counties our size and we did nothing. So keep on planning like we are King or Pierce County and some day we just might be.
Darlene–You will be told that the opt-out doesn’t apply to us due to some technicality. That doesn’t explain why our state representatives don’t pass a law that DOES allow us to opt out of these expensive and re-inventing-the-wheel planning exercises. Good for consultants, bad for the County’s bottom line.