||| BY STEVE BERNHEIM, REPORTER |||

Friday morning, September 17, San Juan County’s Community Development staff met with the Planning Commission to give an update on the six-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and to deliver briefings on how rural residential cluster developments, vacation rentals, and accessory dwelling units will be treated in the County’s 20-year comprehensive plan for 2016-2036, now being written.

But first, local residents called in during Public Access Time to support revision of the County Council Vision approved in 2018, revisions that would emphasize environmental and social coexistence over permissive commercial exploitation. The speakers were Chom Greacen, Kai Sanburn, Julienn Battalia, Nick Teague, and Liz Lafferty from Community Rights San Juan Island. County Council candidate Ryan Palmateer and Orcas resident Sharon Abreu also spoke.

Staff updated the Planning Commission on the six year TIP, itemizing two completed projects and five discontinued ones. On Baler Hill Road — where drivers’ routine unsafe driving and violations of traffic laws endanger cyclists and pedestrians on a narrow roadway — staff explained that while separate walk/bike trails might help preserve rural character degraded by roadway widening, fuel tax money available for the safety improvement can be spent only on the road and not on separated road-side safety trails. The Commission agreed that design standards to preserve rural character in the execution of transportation projects should be considered for inclusion in the transportation element of the comprehensive plan.

Staff next briefed the Commission on draft comprehensive plan sections and code amendments to allow more rural residential cluster developments as a possible way to increase affordable housing in rural areas: staff had recommended increasing the number and size of dwellings permitted and allowing private in addition to nonprofit construction and development. Commission members reached no conclusion on the staff proposals.

After a break for lunch, the briefings continued. Staff addressed how vacation rentals (VRs) and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) might be treated in the draft comprehensive plan in order to increase affordable housing and decrease disorder from unruly tourists.

On vacation rentals, staff wanted the Commission’s answers to two questions: should the number of VRs be limited to add long-term housing units and prevent over-tourism ? Should VRs be restricted in the “urban grown areas” (UGAs) of Eastsound, Friday Harbor and Lopez Village to protect neighborhoods from being taken over by disrespectful visitors? The Commission supported limiting VRs to one per parcel in the UGAs, but then without staff review or recommendation, the Commission voted that homeowner associations should have no role in staff review of a VR permit application, even when HOA rules prohibit vacation rentals.

The last subject of the day dealt with the treatment of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in the draft comprehensive plan. Staff briefed and the Commission talked about making ADUs for affordable housing exempt from the annual ADU lottery and allowing affordable ADUs to be bought and sold separately from the land. Then how quickly it was almost four o’clock! Scheduled discussion of agricultural, forest, and mineral resource lands was postponed. Seven and a half hours after the briefing began at 8:30 a.m., the Commission adjourned.

There are nine seats on the Planning Commission, three are vacant; member Georgette Wong last attended a meeting February 2020.


 

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