Guest Column: Protect the Comp Plan Vision Statement

The following comments are based on the Vision Statement Amendments Draft shown at https://www.sanjuanco.com/DocumentCenter/View/14382

I have attached a copy of the Vision Statement Draft with highlights; please refer to this document in considering the following comments. I realize the Vision Draft is incomplete as I write. However the suggested revisions as well as the excellent public suggestions all point in the same direction. Thus I don’t believe my comments are premature or irrelevant.

I am not requesting any specific change in the language of the Vision Statement Draft.

However, a review of the highlights clearly indicates that the entire document is focused, correctly and appropriately, on the desires of the full time residents of the county. Words like “People of San Juan County”, “islanders”, “community”, “careful stewards”, “small scale”, “demonstrated local public need” clearly point to the intention that the Vision is directed to and for full time residents. There are two other population groups that impact SJC: part time property owners and visitors. Page 3, line 26 of the Draft Vision Statement makes the only reference to visitors in the entire Vision Statement with the single word “tourism” in the context that the tourism and other traditional industries economy is encouraged “without jeopardizing the natural environment on which they depend.”

It is important, therefore, to contextualize the Comprehensive Plan’s obligation to the Vision Statement to ensure that the visitor population is managed to ensure compliance with Vision Statements such as: “rural islands are an extraordinary treasure”

and an economy “which recognizes the rural, residential, quiet, agricultural, marine and isolated nature of the islands.”

and “providing for commerce…without losing their small scale and attractive island ambiance”

This context would naturally lead to finding a way to manage the impact of visitors so the “tail” doesn’t wag the dog. One logical way to begin a conversation about how to meet this obligation is to discuss a quota or limitation on the issuance of Transient Rental Permits in order to ensure that the Vision Statement is honored and not just window dressing on an economy increasingly dominated by market forces that run counter to the overall tone and meaning of the Vision Statement. Staff reports on the impact of visitors over the past few decades have consistently demonstrated that the county population doubles or more than doubles during the summer season, which itself is stretching to include shoulder seasons. The impacts of visitors on community values such as described in the Vision Statement, as well as on hard and soft infrastructure (from water, sewer and transportation to emergency services and food), are significant and unrestrained by any existing policies in the CP or code in the UDC.

Failure to discuss, and then appropriately respond to, the impact of visitors (which often include part-time property owners who use their properties either for personal use or as an income source via platforms such as air bnb) emasculates the Vision and continues the transition of the county from what the residents, who are the voters, want to what the non-resident private sector wants.

It is the responsibility of the Planning Commission to begin a conversation on ensuring that the stated intention of the Vision Statement is not degraded, disrespected, marginalized or ignored by market forces. Otherwise the CP is a futile waste of PC, staff and resident time. There are endless examples of how other small communities have lost the qualities prized by locals. Let’s insure this does not happen here.

With appreciation for the challenges you have in navigating these waters.