Planning Board reverses course on vacation rental caps, plans ahead for bike lanes

||| BY STEVE BERNHEIM, theORCASONIAN REPORTER |||

In August, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended a county-wide cap of 413 vacation rental business permits (the current number of active, compliant rentals) in response to hundreds of residents claiming community character and available housing for residents was deteriorating as a result.

On September 18, after starting 15 minutes late and taking 15 minutes to approve the agenda and minutes and schedule their next meeting, Commission members sat for 90 minutes hearing from 25 concerned residents and business owners before by vote of 4-3 reversing course and raising by more than 60% from 413 to 650 the cap on vacation rentals they unanimously recommended last month.

Arguing for the majority who wanted to change their vote from last month, Commissioner Mike Pickett of San Juan Island argued the interests of future property owners: “I mean basically saying we don’t want any more new permittees, we’re only going to have the
existing ones for as long as we can see forward, I mean, just, that’s why I’ve been rethinking this 413 number because it seems so low and it seems so exclusive to, even people who are inactive and noncompliant have a chance to become so. New people coming to the island wanting to live here and ultimately move here would be out of luck. So anyway, that’s just a comment, I just wanted to make sure I was clear on what we were saying here.”

Following the vote, the Commission agreed to publish preliminary draft findings subject to revision based on public comment.
During the briefing on the County’s six-year transportation plan, Commissioner Steve Rubey of Lopez/Shaw asked the county engineer, Jeff Sharp, why bicycle trails or dedicated bike lanes were not included. Sharp explained that the County’s “complete streets” program accommodates pedestrian and cycling access by including four-foot shoulders on new projects. This reminded Commissioner Smith (Orcas) of the lost opportunity to enhance bicycle and pedestrian safety on the recent Orcas Road project south of the Orcas Exchange: Sharp replied that future projects on San Juan Island will be built to the same standards as the Orcas Road project.

After further discussion, the Commission recommended that the Council adopt a 20-year plan to design future roads and trails to ensure safe passage of pedestrians and cyclists.

After lunch the Commission continued to discuss amendments to the comprehensive plan until 3:15, then agreed to convene a meeting on October 8 to address the issue of affordable housing. While scheduling the meeting, the following comments were made regarding public access:

Chair Uhlir (San Juan Island): One of the things that maybe we can address is the amount of public access time, I mean today it ran over almost an hour and a half. I mean these are voices we’d like to hear from but some of them, I mean at one point during a public hearing we frequently impose a three minute allocation of time maybe that’s something we should consider for public access time as well, because it does prohibit us from, I mean, on the one hand we want to hear from these people, on the other hand we have, you know, a timeline and an agenda and a lot of work to get through, so I would welcome any kind of suggestions in terms of how we might allocate that public access time.

Commissioner Smith: Just as a comment I think as you say it’s important for us to have the public access: it was actually over two hours [sic] today. For our special meeting on the 8th ,maybe that’s one where we don’t take public comment.

Commissioner Pickett: Yeah, I think we ought to consider one minute. I can’t remember what it was before, but if people have a concise time, they know. Was it three minutes? And the County Council is three minutes, I assume? OK, so I definitely suggest we do that and let people know ahead of time they got three minutes, and if you have 25 speakers you’re still an hour and a half so …

Commissioners next discussed how to put items on the agenda, a topic not on the agenda:

Commissioner Kane: I still want to revisit those criteria for resource lands, I’d love to put that on the agenda. It’s something that hasn’t been resolved and needs to be revisited. So how do we ensure that something goes on the agenda? We don’t often write memos or…

Commissioner Smith: Dale, can you address that?

Commissioner Dale Roundy (Lopez/Shaw): Well we have the right to suggest anything and I think we’ve been doing that and although it’s more stressful to DCD and clearly the Council as well when we’re understaffed, there’s so much going on, but still we ought to have a dialog, so [Commission Chair] Camille [Uhlir] do you have a discussion with, well, or did you, with [former DCD Director] Ericka [Shook] because what I the reason I ask is because I remember [former Chair] Tim [Blanchard] used to have some sort of a telephone call or a meeting whatever he would talk with them I believe in advance and maybe Mike [Pickett] did that as well when you were the chair, I thought that went on as a monthly basis and there was some sort of a discussion about the agenda.

Chair Uhlir: Not that I was aware of Dale.

Commissioner Roundy: How bout you Mike, you recall that?
Commissioner Pickett: [technical difficulties] I don’t remember having an item on the agenda, although I do remember discussing it because it was the same issue as before: people got things they want to talk about and they just sort of get left behind and don’t get picked up in future meetings so I think it’s a good idea but I didn’t recommend it.

Commissioner Roundy: I guess it’s disappointing that wasn’t suggested to our new Chair by those above you so to speak in the pecking order: Council, DCD, Planning Commission. But certainly, we have the right to, you know, shall we say suggest, recommend, exactly what[Commissioner Smith] is doing, making recommendations. They can be ignored, they can be responded to exactly the way you’d like, or something in between. I think it would be helpful and if you were the focal point, Camille, I mean there’s some, all ideas like this could be funneled through you so they’re not having to deal with you know, a full meeting.

Commissioner Pickett: How about Lynda [Guernsey, the Commission clerk]? Shouldn’t Lynda be the focal point? She’s kind of the go-between person between the county people and the commission …

Commissioner Roundy: … I’m really glad Lynda is on this conversation because did you hear my comment about what I thought happened before when Tim was the chair? I thought he had some sort of a maybe it was a telephone call in advance of the agenda being finalized … but maybe not. … I think it’s more a matter of how our Commission – and how our Chair for that matter – ends up, you know, communicating with those guys. I think there’s a way to do it, I just, maybe It would be the secretary, maybe that’s me, but if we want to put something on an agenda the way to do that I think would be to have, you know, I think the agenda has to go out two weeks in advance now, that’s the new rule?
…

Chair Uhlir: I’m happy to circle back with [Planner] Adam [Zack]. Typically when we requested something it does appear in answer to a question. Now in terms of the timing for a specific item on the agenda, I think that certainly I can have a discussion with Adam and see how that fits in the next two meetings.

Commissioner Roundy: I’m wondering if you might, we might, be able to ask for a copy of it, you know, a day or two before it goes out, I mean just so you can see what’s on it and then maybe offer an additional item, or I mean at some point either we come up with things we would like to see on the agenda, it’d be another thing to see what’s already on the agenda to be able to make a suggestion.

Chair Uhlir: We have a fairly good idea of what the workload is going forward for the next two or three …

Commissioner Roundy: Years ?

Chair Uhlir: …meetings, obviously.

SEE ALSO, MATTHEW GILBERT’S REPORT ON VACATION RENTALS