Wednesday, July 12, 5 p.m., Village Green
— from Judy Whiting for OPAL —
Red and white checkered posters are popping up around town to announce OPAL’s summer picnic and rally – “Let’s Hear It for Affordable Housing!” – on Wednesday, July 12, beginning at 5 p.m. on The Village Green.
In response to the island’s continuing need for affordable housing, OPAL Community Land Trust is staging a summer picnic and rally – “Let’s Hear It for Affordable Housing” – on The Village Green on Wednesday, July 12, beginning at 5 p.m.
“We’re inviting the community to come and ask questions, share ideas, tell their stories, and get involved,” explained Lisa Byers, OPAL executive director. “The lack of affordable places to live remains our island’s most critical problem. We’ve made progress, but substantially more needs to be done.”
A picnic will be served by the Orcas Village Store; cost is $5 per person or $20 per family. Other activities include music by the Turtleback Brass; an Orcas celebrity “Housing Jeopardy” game, featuring well-known residents; keynote speakers; and several booths where islanders can provide input and learn where their action and involvement are needed.
Walking tours of the proposed April’s Grove rental neighborhood on North Beach Road will be led by OPAL staff and trustees. Thirty year-round townhouse rentals are planned for Phase I and an additional 15 for Phase II.
Lead sponsor for the picnic and rally is Island Market. “As a longtime family of grocers on Orcas – going back to 1897 – we appreciate how very important housing is to the success of our community,” said Jacob Linnes, general manager.
Mary Russell and Ron Rebman of the Orcas Village Store are donating the picnic. “We’re very supportive of OPAL. Our employees need homes,” commented Russell.
Other sponsors are San Juan Propane, Islanders Bank, Nickel Bros., San Juan Insurance, Washington Federal Bank and The Exchange/Orcas Recycling Services.
Incorporated in 1989, OPAL serves 132 rental and ownership Orcas Island households. For more information, go to www.opalclt.org or call (360) 376-3191.
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What follows isn’t necessarily a diatribe against Opal housing. I like what I’ve seen about the Opal efforts; but it is a point a view about where we go from here and a call to arms in some respects to protecting “what works” against “what has been a proven failure” due to the very misguided and irrational policies of otherwise well-intentioned souls.
Balancing housing needs with maintaining a rustic
Island charm and not turning Orcas Island into a failed mainland subdivision is the challenge before us.
Some will profit from an increase in density partially self-fabricated under the guise of “affordable housing” because homeowners like myself want specialized services to help maintain our homes and other support services for dining out, etc.
But to misunderstand the true causes of a housing shortage on Orcas Island and attempt to solve a problem partially made by my and others’ demands risks losing the most endearing quality of what makes rustic island living attractive in the first place.
As homeowners with a serious financial vested interest in Orcas Island and in the county’s tax base, WE need to understand the problem more deeply and not fail to think this matter through thoroughly.
We do not want to import the failed policies of our urban population centers.
As homeowners on Orcas Island we need to listen up and get involved to ensure that political agendas untethered to sustaining, maintaining and preserving the amazing ecological richness and balance of the San Juan islands and Orcas Island, in particular, are not allowed to undo all that has been accomplished by intelligent and logical habitat planning.
Importing failed urban policies to these islands for political reasons is a form of “since we cant get it right on the mainland, we wont allow you on these beautiful ecologically diverse islands the success you’re now enjoying due to your past and present rational, logical and well-reasoned policies regarding zoning, density and sustainability.” I’m sorry, that’s not rational or intelligent. That’s punishing success! That’s rewarding poor thinking and poor planning. That’s reinforcimg failure!
We need to speak up and speak out. We homeowners need to find our voices and steer this debate before it’s allowed to translate into chaos and bring the standards of living of the entire san juan islands to one that is substandard, irrational and unintelligent all for purely misguided politics in its ineffectual attempt to mandate “equality.” This is what poor and irrational thinking look like. Reality requires a response to such poor thinking and planning:
Think zoning! Think density! Think sustainability!
Homeowners–Hold your ground, literally and figuratively!
Practice intelligent planning. Don’t succumb to the irrational thinking of misguided policies around the topic of social planning. They dont work on the mainland. They will fail miserably on these islands and drag you down with them. Misery for all? I dont think so.
This island has been at the forefront of problem solving, sustainable living, ecologically sound practices and very intelligent solutions unique to island living for many many years. Don’t throw it all away.
Think about the tiny house agenda! A tiny house on 5 acres…fine. Ten tiny houses on 1 acre? What on earth are you talking about? Affordable housing crises? Really? Be creative with your outsourcing needs for upkeep and maintenance. Dont solve less than critical “comfort” needs so unimaginatively so as to destroy the very reason you invested and now live here in the first place.
And don’t let the issue of “Affordable Housing” become the default slogan and excuse for ruining these islands. It’s an easy sounding phrase that belies a much more serious and intentional agenda. Wake up!
How is increasing density on Orcas Island even remotely considered “intelligent living and planning?” These are off the grid islands; these are not laboratories for social experimentation whose basis is divorced from ecological, rational and sustainable living systems.
Homeowners– connect the dots! Find your voice and speak out!
Please note. My address isn’t limited to homeowners. I used that expression because I am a homeowner on Orcas Island. My plea is addressed broadly to anyone living on or off the island who gets what these islands mean and represent, their rarity, their uniqueness, their anything but mundane significance. It’s about truly living within our means, sustainably, and this requires serious vision, rational thought and policies to match. Overpopulation is a human failure, literally, incarnate. Increasing density and destroying carefully and intelligently thought out habitats is a very thoughtless solution that piles one more failure onto so many others we see on the mainland. We’ve carved out a niche here out of necessity given the contraints inherent in island living. Let’s not stop being smart and forward thinking in how we continue to implement sustainable living practices going forward.
Crowding this island physically, putting further strain on resources and creating seeds and needs for more shelters and homelessness is actually the cruel result of poor thinking (often by those with big hearts –a very good thing but best served with a matching amount of rational thought).
Distinguishing between the two is the difference between success and failure not only here on Orcas but throughout the country and world. We can think globally but let’s at least act locally and continue getting it right…as this island has for many many years—hence our attractiveness to all who do and would come to know us.