— by Matthew Gilbert, Orcas Issues reporter —
As tracked over the last month or so by Orcas Issues and with a request for input from the County, a survey has been developed to gauge public thinking on a range of issues that will potentially influence state-mandated updates to the San Juan County Comprehensive Plan. Issues such as tourism, bike paths, vacation rentals, affordable housing, and many others that will have both an immediate and long-term impact on county life are in play. All of this is happening against the backdrop of a political environment that seems likely to pit the County Vision Statement (amended last June) against competing interpretations of how that vision gets translated and implemented – incrementally on the ground and through enforceable policy.
County planners were asked to provide deeper insights into what’s at stake in this process to help incentivize feedback but were unable to respond before this deadline. (They’ll be making a statement next week). In the meantime, while it’s debatable the extent to which the results of this survey will ultimately influence comp plan revisions and policies, county residents should take every opportunity to be heard. The survey itself makes certain assumptions about options and outcomes depending on the issue, which itself is an education on current County thinking. A broader canvas of possibilities and perspectives is, in some cases, warranted, but you be the judge.
And so today is your last chance to fill out the survey (but not the last chance for input – the county has planned a series of feedback sessions over the next months as the process unfolds). It’s available here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/B7MPCCX.
If you’d like to provide additional comments, please send them to compplancomments@sanjuanco.com.
The results of a previous series of island-community workshops will soon be available on the County website: www.sanjuanco.com/1306/Comprehensive-Plan-Elements.
Additional information about the Comprehensive Plan update can be found here: www.sanjuanco.com/1079/Comprehensive-Plan-Update.
To sign up for notifications about the Comprehensive Plan update, go here: www.sanjuanco.com/list.aspx
The current Comprehensive Plan is available on the San Juan County website: www.sanjuanco.com/510/Comprehensive-Plan
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Suggestion: For the Survey Monkey web url you may want to take of the period at the end of the string… some may not notice…the webpage will come up not found if the period is included.
Really good catch, Clark. Thank you. Hopefully it is all better now.
Thanks Mathew / Margie– this is good local reporting.
If they really cared about our opinion, why didn’t they extend the deadline? What’s the rush?