— by Margie Doyle, updated July 18 —

Eastsound Planning Review Committee members, from left, Charles Toxey, Brian Wiese, Yonatan Aldort and co-chair Margaret Payne

The monthly meeting of the Eastsound Planning Review Committee managed to pack in reviews of projects affecting Eastsound from the long-planned Streetscape designs to the new port master plan, a planned playground structure and the first draft of a design for the Fern Street Park/Plaza, with new member Brian Wiese at his introductory meeting.

Rick Hughes’ report on the County Council and public comments will be addressed in a forthcoming article.

Following public comment, where it was emphasized that comments about the Port Master Plan should be addressed to the Port Commissioners at their meetings and at the Special meeting scheduled for July 26, County Public Works engineer Shannon Wilbur presented options for Streetscapes  for a section of North Beach Road, beginning with a review of the Street Standards process for Eastsound.

The area in question, is “primarily North Beach Road from Mount Baker Road south to School road,” Wilbur said. She presented several options, emphasizing that all plans are in the draft stage:

Option A
Install a gravel path on the east side of North Beach Road, similar to the path on the west side of the road, from The Funhouse north past Children’s House, Salmonberry School and the Senior Center

Option B
Install a pervious sidewalk such as on Mt. Baker Road. EPRC member Charles Toxey, suggested that such an option would benefit from avoiding the stark look and step-up of that section of pathway;  by making the North Beach Road section more level to the ground.

County Public Works Manager Russ Harvey spoke of various sidewalk surfaces, including asphalt, for which there is no local purveyor. It was also noted that maintaining the growth along the Mt. Baker road pervious surface (past St. Francis Church, Orcas Center and the Orcas Medical Clinic) has proved problematical.

Option C
Install a pervious sidewalk with options for street parking. Both parallel and diagonal parking options were suggested. It was noted that the planned rental housing project April’s Grove provides onsite parking.

Other options concerning street designs along North Beach Road from Enchanted Forest to School Road dealt with the parking potential included the idea of moving the current trail on the west side back for parallel parking or reroute the trail back and put in diagonal parking

EPRC Co-chair Paul Kamin urged that a vegetative buffer between North Beach Road and April’s Grove be preserved.”

Co-chair Margaret Payne favored the gravel path and no parking between Enchanted Forest and School Road. “We are so lucky to have a green approach to the village, I wouldn’t change a bit of it beyond a gravel path on the east side. I think it’s a very much-loved aspect of our village.”

Other members of the EPRC advisory board were in agreement with the co-chairs.

Aldort said, “Despite our parking issues, it’s not the area to install parking, speaking as a representative of the public and having grown up here, if we were to install parking here, there would be severe outrage.:

Shannon Wilbur summarized the discussion, repeating  what she’d heard:

  • No parking in this area
  • Include a planting strip in both gravel and pervious options
  • Maintenance concerns of pervious concrete
  • Any path to be at-grade and not stepping up

She added that all options were ADA compliant with a 5-ft wide path with a ramp at the intersection

Margaret Payne and Yonatan Aldort gave a progress report on the proposed Village Green Playscape Progress Report. Payne said that in anticipation of a grant application due August 3 the project to install a playscape at the northwest corner of the county park has approval of the neighbors, but no design.”We’re trying to work with the esthetics of the stage and make something pleasing for the community, so I’m hoping that we can present a budget and more sketched design and have the luxury of having three of the people involved with the stage involved with the design.”

Yonatan Aldort reported on progress with the budget for the playscape, and Kamin offered to help with the design.

EPRC Co-chair Paul Kamin then addressed EPRC representation on the Eastsound Design Review Committee,saying that committee has some substantive powers and will be needed.

The group is being reconstituted. Kamin asked Clyde Duke about the the composition of the committee. Duke responded that John Campbell is a founding member of the EDRC, but that “The EDRC has been quiet with the county for almost a year and a half.” The EDRC needs a representative from the EPRC and an alternate, Duke said. Charles Toxey then offered to participate as EPRC representative to the EDRC.

The EPRC then unanimously authorized a Letter of Support for the Prune Ally Grant Application, which Kamin said could potentially fund up to 100 percent of the project. The letter will endorse the County Council’s application for grant funding to develop the Eastsound streetscapes.

When the next agenda item, the Discussion on the Port of Orcas Airport Expansion Outreach was introduced, Port Manager Tony Simpson expressed his dismay that he was not notified of the agenda item beforehand and left the meeting.

Kamin said that the Port Master Plan had been placed on the EPRC agenda with his expectation that the committee would urge the Port to hold more public meetings this summer to discuss the plan and its alternatives. With the announcement on July 11 that the Port was indeed planning such a meeting on July 26 (orcasissues.com/port-of-orcas-master-plan-now-includes-special-meeting-and-extended-comment-deadline), he felt the agenda item had already been addressed.

Aldort asked that the EPRC consider “what action we’re taking… EPRC should have an opinion.”

Others on the committee agreed that it was under the EPRC’s purview to weigh in on the discussion. Charles Toxey provided an overview of the general directive from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) –to improve safety measures; and what is driving the need to expand and upgrade the airport.

If Orcas airport can document there are over than 10,000 emplanements, the FAA funding would jump from $150,00 to $1,000,000 annually. It was discussed which planes would be involved and Toxey said that by expanding the airport to comply with safety standards for wing separation for the “Caravans” operated by Kenmore Air and others, it would step up to the next class of aircraft size which could include Boeing 727s.

(Editor’s note: the following quote is inaccurate and is clarified in the comments following the article).

Others brought up that delivery services such as FedEx and UPS also fly the larger sized planes, to which the response was that other islands similar to Orcas receive off-island freight by truck and boat service. Toxey countered claims of the need for increased aircraft wing separation and said, “Continued expansion goes against the planning process…the two are on a collision course.”

Paul Kamin said, “That’s endemic to the process. It seems to be skewed towards growing airports. But there is a way to weigh in. We have the right to say we don’t necessarily want bigger and better. We have to do our due diligence.

Kamin’s representation on Port Master Plan Advisory Board was then questioned as to whether he was on that board as an EPRC representative or as a private citizen. Toxey pointed out that Kamin’s service as General Manager of Eastsound Water Users Association “seems like a lot for one person to represent… Eastsound Water is going to be impacted by whatever decision they make.”

Kamin clarified that he was appointed by the EPRC as a representative of that body for the Port Master Plan advisory committee, and reminded people that the advisory meetings are open. However there was some confusion as to when the advisory meetings took place and if they were announced as “Open Houses” which took place in January (orcasissues.com/airport-schedules-open-house/) and June (orcasissues.com/join-in-airport-master-plan-discussions/) this year.

Wiese proposed that the subject be placed on the agenda for a future meeting and it was agreed that it would be on the August 3 meeting agenda.

Model depicting some of the proposals for the use of Fern Street Park as a “Plaza”

As the committee turned to the Fern Street Plaza Proposal, Kamin described the model he had made as a representation of the desires for the Fern Street Park between Prune Alley and North Beach Road as expressed in the Eastsound Vision Survey. He said it was “more of a plaza than a park.”

The lot, across North Beach Road from the Village Green, is flanked by private property. It was purchased with county road funds, and in Kamin’s draft model, it accommodates parking on one side (depicted in the model as the east side, but suggested at the meeting that it be moved to the west side) and vehicle drop off, currently shown at the western (North Beach Road) side. The north and south boundaries of the lot were to remain open in Kamin’s draft, as greenbelts that may be developed by the adjacent property owners. It also shows areas for bicycle racks, Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations and for a small stage area.

Some in the public expressed dismay at the “hardscape” look of the design, and desires for more shade trees was noted.
Kamin brought up that, despite his own opinion that the lot should be made into a through road, “The results of the survey showed three to one that folks preferred this to be a plaza. … It’s a postage stamp of a lot.”

The EPRC then reviewed permit applications for a carport and breakfast nook remodels, and for short plan alteration without comment.

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