— from Comp Plan Update Team —
Photo of Orcas Island in foreground and Blakely Island in distance taken from Doe Bay Resort
The dominant theme quietly residing in the 1994 San Juan County Vision Statement, and refreshed in the 2017 Eastsound Visioning process and Vision Statement, is the notion of maintaining, enhancing, and preserving as much rural, slow, quiet, friendly, “island time” community spirit, and natural beauty that has brought visitors here for decades. Some of those visitors have been so enchanted by the spirit of the islands that they have chosen to make one of the San Juan islands their home.
The unexamined and unprepared for growth potential in the existing San Juan County Comprehensive Plan threatens the peaceful and rural qualities of this special archipelago; the Comp Plan is now up for a required update.
To help you understand the issues, a website has been crafted: KeepSanJuansWild.org.
Please take the time to discover what is on the table and participate in any number of easy and important actions that will help craft a future we all wish to see.
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
Thank you “Comp Plan Update Team!” Count this Orcas Island resident and property owner in. Your vision is what I saw when I first arrived on Orcas Island. Over time (2 years), some of the reality filtered into my initial impressions. However, your vision, so intuitively expressed in the linked pages, reinvirgorates and recharges this Orcas Islander’s expectations that we can make the vision of being “caretakers” of these amazing islands our central and core role; it starts with an oxymoron: through powerful humility, a (your) vision can made a fact.
To quote from your “A New Vision”
“Imagine that those who live here, own property here and visit here actually treasure these values and vision and will do what it takes to ensure that this county does not follow the standard “love it to death” process that has happened to essentially every other beautiful small (at one point “undiscovered”) rural community virtually anywhere in the world.”
I recommend all to your linked pages and to submit your names in support.