San Juan County Councilman Rick Hughes, who resides on Orcas Island, presented a draft strategy for economic development to the County Council earlier this year. Hughes said recently, “When I ran for County Council, I hoped to add jobs in the county. I’ve found that’s it’s not easy for Council members to affect the economic environment and create jobs, so we’ve taken a more tactical approach. We’ve tried to help people work together on economic solutions that benefit a larger sphere.

“The plan is the first step to begin to address job creation that we feel may be effective in addressing the economic and employment scenario in the county.

“Some of the suggestions that we hope to incorporate in the 2015 budget process are additional funding for the county Chambers of Commerce; and installation of 50-100 mooring buoys and improve existing marine facilities as part of the Department of Public Works plans; to add the marine element into our infrastructure. Also, I hope that ferry connectivity to broadband can be made available by using county property to provide line-of-sight connectability. We will be working towards creating a master list of county assets and working to improve these assets.

“Many of these tactics are “one-off” solutions that slowly improve the culture of doing business in the San Juans.

“Government always works more slowly than people would like, but in the past year and a half, there have been a lot of dramatic changes in county government and its effect on people’s lives.”

Following is Hughes’ Presentation to the County Council:

San Juan County Job Expansion Program: Job Creation

Goal: To further economic development, promote the San Juan Islands, create new, local, real wage jobs and provide year round economic activity for existing county business.

Funding: Dedicate $1,200,000 of funding (County current, lodging tax, .09 funds and grants) over a two- year period of time.

Programs:

  • County Wide Broadband:
  • 10+mgs of free internet for county residents at all SJC Ferry Terminals and Anacortes Terminal
  • 10+mgs of free internet for county residents on SJC routes of the WSF, both mainland and inter-island routes
  • Affordable 10mgs of internet access at all population centers (Eastsound, Roche, Lopez Village, Deer Harbor, Orcas, Olga, Doe Bay, Lopez South End, Shaw, Cattle Point, West Sound, county parks and some Land Bank Parcels)
  • County Wide EMS/First Responders two-way radio communications
  • County wide option, to the home via direct connection or wireless

Affordable Housing

  • Work with existing housing assistance groups, Land Trust, Homes for Islanders, Opal,etc. to expand affordable options for home buyers and renters
  • Need for creation of affordable rental units
  • Consider change to ADU laws to open up option for additional structures encumbered for affordable rental units for families
  • Look to change land use to open up additional units for housing options to young families

Transportation

  •  Locate and place 50-100 mooring buoys county-wide, near population centers and county assets to promote alternative transportation options for visitors who want to boat to San Juan County and for residents to explore all the islands in SJC
  •  Encourage overnight moorage near population centers to provide access year round, not tied to ferry
  • Expand existing county docks near population centers to encourage dingy tie up to allow more access from new moorings
  • Promote inter-island access via mooring buoys
  • Consider county owned share vehicles on each island to promote non vehicle use of ferries and/or support of local shuttle operations

Chamber of Commerce

  • Increase investment to island specific Chambers to support the mission of local business in growing tourist trade and encouraging new business opportunities and job creation
  • Encourage Year round events and festivals especially in shoulder season

UGA/population center infrastructure

  • Create fund to improve facilities in non-incorporated populations centers (trails, bathrooms, street lamps, signage, promotional materials, garbage)
  • Promotional materials – provide digital road maps to county owned and public accessed facilities

Job training funding via grants

  •  Customer Service
  •  Ag Production
  • Lumber Mill work
  • High-Tech Programming
  • Culinary Services
  • Skilled Labor/Trade/Arts
  • Environmental Services
  • Health Care
  • Renewable Energy
  • Small scale manufacturing

Island Made Campaign

  • Work with Ag Guild/ARC on expanding Island Grown Program and to create Island Made, Island Caught, Island produced. Goal to create a local brand ID on all hand crafted, locally made or grown items
  • Ad/PR campaign to brand quality of locally made items. All items to carry logo on packaging. Annual fee to participate in program
  • San Juan Islands Brand Campaign that can work with any sector, “You should/could be here”
  • New county money to begin long term brand campaign to drive tourist, new residents, conventions, media and high tech start-ups to San Juan County

County media Production

  • Dedicate resources and local resident talent to staff a volunteer committee
  • Provide marketing to the media community
  • Establish pre-production assistance and location scouting

Grow Convention business

Trade Free Zone with Gulf Islands

Permit fee waiver for new business that will create new jobs in SJC

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