||| BY STEVE BERNHEIM, ORCASONIAN REPORTER |||
The San Juan County Planning Commission convened its regularly scheduled remote access meeting on Friday, December 18 and backtracked on its previous commitment to re-open discussion of the County Vision Statement adopted in 2018.
While policies for so-called “resource lands” rural lands, and urban growth areas are being debated, residents from the group Community Rights San Juan Islands and others have at every meeting since August asked the Planning Commission to recommend revising the Vision Statement to emphasize environmental and social justice issues. In September, members of the Planning Commission concluded they “should discuss the [vision] statement based on the [public] comments,” but no discussion was ever scheduled. Having been reminded at Friday’s meeting of its commitment, the Commission instead voted unanimously to ask the County Council whether to open this discussion, which would require extensive public notice and comment before the Vision Statement could be changed. After the vote, residents interested in revising the Vision Statement were encouraged to contact the County Council directly. Further information about Community Rights San Juan Islands can be found here: https://rightsofthesalishsea.org/.
Another item on the agenda was to test out the new public meeting video conferencing software, Microsoft Teams®, Version 1.0. Planning Department staff used some of the meeting time to train Commission members and the public in the new software and participants were better able to see each other on screen and review documents together than in previous meetings. Future Commission agendas will contain Teams links to the meetings, but members of the public can first install Teams software for free from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/download-app. Access to the meetings without Teams software will be possible by following other links provided in future meeting agendas.
The third agenda item was an outline of the remaining schedule for finalizing the draft Comprehensive Plan for resource lands, rural lands, and urban growth areas: the Commission plans to have further discussion in January, review official map alternatives in February, and review final plan drafts in March and April. Further hearings will be convened after April 2021 for public comment and Commission workshops. Background materials are available here: https://www.sanjuanco.com/510/Comprehensive-Plan
In other business, the Commission revisited its November 2020 position that caps for vacation rentals “should be set so that there’s no new vacation rental permits, that it’s set at the existing level.” The Commission clarified that “whatever cap is ultimately determined, it should not be an annual increase limit but a fixed number beyond which additional vacation rental permits in the area subject to the cap would not be approved.”
Commissioner Tim Blanchard’s term on the Planning Commission has now expired. Three new members from Orcas Island have recently joined the nine-member Commission: Sheila Gaquin, Nick Knoellinger, and Steve Smith. One vacancy remains for San Juan Island, Position #4. Information on application can be found here: https://www.sanjuanco.com/641/Board-Committee-Vacancies.
Steve–The Vision Statement was the first part of the Comp Plan update completed by the Planning Commission. It is my understanding that the Vision Statement, which was developed after considerable discussion and participation by the public, was approved by the Planning Commission, sent on to Council, subjected to Council’s consideration and public hearing requirements, and approved by Council. As a result, the Planning Commission could not, alone, decide to reopen the Vision Statement. The reasons posited for returning to consideration of that portion of the Comp Plan update were that the events of 2020 (coronavirus pandemic, economic crisis, racial justice crisis) required a return and changes to the Vision. If I recall correctly, there was no commitment to reconsider the Vision Statement; there were, however, requests for concrete examples of ways in which the Vision Statement–a one-page document comprising numerous sections that seek to encapsulate our community’s desires for the future–requires rewriting. There is a 598-page record on the County’s website that sets forth the work already done on the document over two years.