— by Kathi Ciskowski —
Last week I went to the monthly Eastsound Planning Review Committee meeting. This is a group of hard working citizens (appointed to this committee for various term lengths) who provide input to the county commissioners concerning Eastsound land use issues. I have been attending these meetings sporadically since about 1990 when I became interested in airplane noise and neighborhood land use issues. These topics have continued to interest me and I do my best to stay informed when changes are happening.
I don’t often speak up at these meetings but this time I was clear about wanting to share my thoughts during public access time. The impetus for this was an overwhelming sense that there are so many things happening in our community, seemingly all at once, that it is almost impossible to process it all let alone understand everything.
I kind of spilled out everything quickly and not that coherently, but the gist was that although life here is always changing and there are always issues to be dealt with, right now it seems that everything has been greatly accelerated and tumbling into each other. These are some of the things I’ve noticed and that have been mentioned to me by other people as well:
- There are many visible building projects in Eastsound with more to come. The environmental impact of the changes has an emotional quality, especially if it changes the visual aesthetics that we love about our town;
- Communication systems and the ferry issues challenge the way we interact with the world;
- Navigating town safely is not a very pleasant experience right now and there are a lot of facets to that statement;
- Vacation rentals and the impacts on housing are still an unknown;
- A change in the ownership of a number of Eastsound core commercial buildings is mysterious…will there be significant changes to the business district?
- Creating a hospital district was a large task and those who took it up are to be commended for working to solve a problem;
- The controversy over the propane tank permitting;
- Then there is the Port Master Plan to help decide the future of the airport. We are invited to study it and give input but it is very complex.
The point of listing these things and more, including the need for people to get up to speed on the upcoming changes to the County Comprehensive Plan, is just to point out how much is changing, and very quickly, and we are scrambling to keep up while trying to live our daily lives.
In the midst of my unease I was wondering if there is a way to “contain” this process a bit more? Has Eastsound moved beyond the small, sleepy village concept since, after all, we are an Urban Growth Area? At the meeting I wondered if we should be having a conversation about the incorporation of Eastsound. I know that incorporation is a very complicated and expensive thing to do, and then, do we really want another layer of government? But, maybe it is the right thing…
I don’t know what the future holds for us but I do know that right now it is hard to keep up with everything that is happening. Maybe this is just a blip in the curve of time and things will settle back down again but it’s hard to imagine. How do other small towns like ours move into the future?
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Kathi –
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. My sense of how other small towns like ours move into the future is by encouraging those who wish to preserve what is wonderful about this place to become informed and involved. We will deserve what we get if people don’t care enough.
I commend you both. As to the larger picture within which Eastsound is impacted, please visit KeepSanJuansWild.org to learn and Take Action to demonstrate your concern and care. Inform, involve, and inspire yourselves and others. There is a herd of elephants in the living room. (For one data point, note that the Growth Management Act, under which the update to the comp plan is being written, does not engage or involve itself with the impact of visitors). It’s up to us to deal with that topic; like any conversational elephant, it won’t be easy. The rubber meets the road with your county Council members. Let them know how you feel.
Well said and thought, Kathi; I think Catherine Ellis is right that we need more and sustained involvement from the citizenry if we are going to make our presence felt with Council. After the propane tank permit and the Haven Road sidewalk vote by Council, I’m frankly skeptical, and that skepticism goes back at least 30 years. Eastsound has become “prime real estate” land, which is ironic, since 54% of us were supposed to live here and it’s now unaffordable.
This County is seems bent on pushing a continual glut of unlimited growth and development on the lands we love; the only thing that can stop it is another crash like 2008, or a groundswell of committed Public involvement and resistance, while building a more sustainable paradigm.
– and we need those carrying capacity numbers and a buildout analysis to help shape our future; not some projections that don’t take contigencies into account.