Eastsound Planners Meet Prior to County Discussion

Sub-area Plan Zoning, Lighting in Eastsound, and Public Works Dominate Summer EPRC Meetings

— by Margie Doyle —

Members of the public, elected officials, county staff and the Eastsound Planning Review Committee (EPRC) have been working to unravel some knotty issues before the  county advisory committee this summer. Some of the problems have been before the committee time and again as it works to address Eastsound infrastructure, streets and the over-arching Eastsound Sub-area Plan. That plan was accepted by the county in 1981, before it agreed to comply with the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) in 1999, which superimposed new regulations on growth in the county. Part and parcel of GMA compliance — achieved in 2009 — was establishing an Urban Growth Area in Eastsound.

The EPRC has announced its agenda for its monthly meeting on Thursday, August 6, which is the last scheduled public meeting before the Sub-area Plan update and related documents go before the County Planning Commission on August 21. These documents have the potential to make zoning and land use changes in a more efficient and timely manner. The EPRC meeting will also be an opportunity for Orcas Islanders to become conversant with the details of the Sub-area Plan and how it impacts development and regulations in Eastsound. There will be two periods for public input.

Eastsound Sub-area Plan

The Eastsound Subarea Plan is a part of the County Comprehensive Plan and was written to provide both a vision and development requirements for the UGA and the properties from Los Arboles on the west to Ship Bay on the east. (Last summer the Plan was separated into two documents, one for development standards and one to articulate the vision).

This month the county is moving forward to complete the adoption of the Eastsound Sub-area Plan update this year. Last week announcements were mailed out  of a public hearing with the Planning Commission on the 21^st of August at the American Legion Hall on Crescent Beach road beginning around 10 am.

Earlier this summer, County Senior Planner Colin Maycock told the Eastsound Planning Review Committee (EPRC), “We will be using the text approved by the EPRC in July 2014 as the hearing document. …. The EPRC is free to suggest further changes to approved draft, … addressed to the Planning Commission.”

The announcement states that as part of the hearing there will will proposed “Comprehensive Plan Official Map amendments including:

• split zoned parcels adjacent to the airport and along Bartel Road
• extending the Village Commercial designation along the north side of Main Street,
• creating a new Eastsound residential district with a 12-unit-per-acre density in the Mountain View Street Area

Subarea Plan amendments to be discussed at the public hearing include:

• splitting land use regulations from the subarea’s goals and policies;
• amending and moving regulations to the Unified Development Code;
• making the subarea’s goals and policies an appendix of the San Juan County Comprehensive plan.

The split zoning parcel at the northwest corner of North Beach and Mt. Baker Road, with part of it zoned for airport use and part of it zoned for residential housing. The split zoning reflects the purchase of the property partly with Federal Aviation Association money and partly with county money for residential zoning.

The matter has come before the EPRC at its last three monthly meetings. The EPRC has requested that the county consider financially supporting a survey of the property.

However, Port Manager Tony Simpson said that the Port needs to move ahead to complete its Master Plan, including  a wider runway for class B-2 planes, moving the terminal and hangars. This requires FAA support, which is contingent on rezoning, to split the property in question.

EPRC member Fred Klein has said that it is incumbent on the Port to pay the cost of complying with the FAA.

Lighting

Eastsound Lighting goals and regulations are also on the Aug. 6 EPRC agenda. On June 29, a public meeting of Orcas Islanders, convened by the Chamber of Commerce and the Eastsound Planning Review Committee, discussed the possibility of installing “safe and attractive” lighting on Eastsound streets. The group also discussed lighting, that is neither safe nor attractive, that property owners have installed in the recent past, apparently not knowing of the restrictions on such lighting, nor of the availability of lights that do assist vision and safety.

Fred Klein, who facilitated the meeting, summarized the main points of discussion in a memo to the EPRC at its July meeting:  “The direction we’re heading is NOT towards anything akin to traditional “street lights”…. rather, to provide some kind of lighting in the public realm which respects the principles of the Dark Sky movement, [and] address pedestrian safety issues at several key intersections.

“Another takeaway is to come up with a way to engage building owners with non-code-compliant exterior lighting in a courteous, neighborly manner so whatever lighting they may have is non-polluting and contributing in a positive way to the night time ambiance of the Village.”

County Council Member Rick Hughes said that there was funding available to bring lighting to Eastsound “if we agree on what we want.” But EPRC members have discussed the concern that if funding is obtained prior to an agreement/plan, that the funding source may direct the conversation in an unwanted manner.EPRC Chair Greg Ayers said that the community “could perceive that ……. by applying for a grant , appears that we are promoting that grant.”

The next EPRC meeting will be held Thursday, August 6 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Eastsound Fire Hall.

( from the EPRC in 2009 — Gulliver Rankin, Patty Miller, Mindy Kayl, Brian Ehrmantraut, Bob Connell and Audrey Moreland), The history of the Subarea Plan started in 1979 when a group of Eastsound business people retained Elliot Bay Associates (Jim Youngren, Paul Schell, and Tony Puma) to develop a village plan for Eastsound. In 1980 the EPRC was formed to draft a plan based heavily upon the Elliot Bay report and, with wide public input, the Subarea Plan was adopted as County Ordinance # 225-1981. Modifications have been made over the years but the three-year update, mandated by state planning guidelines, has been overshadowed since 2003 by lack of County staff time and the requirements of (or efforts to meet) GMA compliance.)