— from Jeff Otis —
How important is the future of Eastsound to you?
What will Eastsound be like in twenty years? What role would you like to play in answering that
question?
Should Eastsound evolve on its own in accordance with existing regulations and whatever
market forces are brought to bear, or should it be guided by the conscious intentions of the
citizens of Orcas Island?
It’s your village and your choice.
As part of the continuing series of workshops on the Vision for Eastsound, the Eastsound Planning and Review Committee (EPRC ) invites you to participate in an intensive community driven process of updating the Eastsound Subarea Plan.
Your help is needed to make the changes to the Eastsound Subarea Plan that will implement the community vision. To facilitate this process, subcommittee work groups of the EPRC will be
formed and tasked with the responsibility of formulating recommendations to the EPRC for
revising the goals and policies of the Eastsound Subarea Plan. The subcommittees will be divided into the following categories: Livability, Character, Open Spaces, Parking and Roads, and Opportunities.
The groups will get under way in the beginning of April. If you haven’t already registered to participate please do so by Apr. 3 at doebay.net/eprc/eprccategoricalworkshopregistration.html.
You can make a difference in the future of Eastsound.
For additional information contact Jeff Otis at jeffo@rockisland.com, or Fred Klein at freddythek10@gmail.com
And Community Input Session on 3/31 from 6-8 pm at the Fire Hall
How often is it necessary to go through this process? If I recollect, these discussions have occurred and re-occurred repeatedly since the GMA was passed in the early ’90s. Last summer, an impressive booklet was published that showed conceptual ideas of what Eastsound might be some years into the future. Let’s move forward from that plan and build on its proposals.
The longer these discussions continue, and the longer it takes for appropriate ordinances to be established that limit, or concentrate densities, determine where new roads, or paths might be added, the more that continuing development will occur under the current set of regulations.
Evidence recent construction in the village as examples of how events move forward in the absence of change.
On a different note regarding this topic, if you are over sixty years of age, you should not participate in these discussions. The future belongs to the young. My son’s generation and perhaps that of my grandchildren should be making the decisions that will impact the future of our community. Each of us in the oldest generation, for one reason or another, will not be here in twenty years. Jeff Otis and the EPRC should be most interested in the ideas and preferences of those members of the Orcas community who are 40-50 years old. Look in the mirror Grandpa, your time has passed !!!
What a curious suggestion! Now that I am in my sixties with a lifetime of experience, some accumulated knowledge and perhaps on the verge of some wisdom I should forgo participation in envisioning the future of Eastsound because I won’t be here more than another 20 or 30 years? Perhaps I should put my vote out to pasture as well and not participate in local, state or federal elections either because those elections are also about the future. Should I also concede that the merits of an idea should be determined by the age of the person who proposed it?
…right on Charlie…
Down with age-ism