PRESENT:

Board of County Commissioners: Chairman Wm. L. McDowell, Commissioners Tom Shaughnessy and Mike Shelton.

Planning Commission: Chairman Rufus Rose, Planning Commissioners Pat Churchill, George Crampton, Ann Pringle, and Tom Olsen.

Staff: Keith Dearborn, Island County’s Legal/Land Use Planning Consultant; Larry Kwarsick, Public Works Director; Joyce Kasperson, Adm. Asst.

Public: Approximately 10 citizens attended; an Attendance Sheet was circulated and copy on file and part of the GMA record.

Keith Dearborn presented an overview of the proposed Phase B of the Island County Draft Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulations. The Plan consists of six documents all

available at the libraries and on the Internet. Phase B includes the following:

He explained that 11 ordinances were being amended or proposed as new ordinances now being reviewed through Planning Commission hearings and Board of County Commissioner hearings concurrently with the review of the above documents. The first three are procedural and will change the way the County reviews projects, time frames, and general application requirements. The fourth ordinance is a protection ordinance for farm and forestry and requires disclosure adjacent to residential properties. The next three ordinances are a land division ordinance, amendments for cluster development, and site plan review. The eighth ordinance is on concurrency requiring that certain types of public facilities be available with sufficient capacity in place before development can be approved. The ninth and tenth ordinances relate to clearing and grading and storm water standards. The last ordinance is a Public Benefit Rating System [PBRS] that sets criteria for judging whether property should be included in an open space tax classification for reduction of taxes. All ordinances implement the Comprehensive Plan, and all are development regulations under the Growth Management Act which will go into effect if adopted by the Board when the Comprehensive Plan goes into effect. There will be a 60-day appeal period after adoption.

Mr. Dearborn stated the Comprehensive Plan has a vision statement, a new water resource element, and addresses how to achieve and maintain affordable housing. It allows attached housing in Planned Residential Developments (PRD’s), continues allowing duplexes and triplexes in the dense residential areas, allows multi-family housing, and provides that guest cottages may be rented, and guest cottages may be separate buildings or attached to the home. A proposed housing density bonus has been included. Addresses small farms under 20 acres as permitted uses. A plan has been developed for earned development units that would increase density for farmers and foresters that develop a management plan and commit to keep their land in long-term farming or forestry. The approval process for the management plan has been refined. In effect, after the management plan has been approved by the Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners, the property zoned forest or agriculture would have the same density, rights, and opportunities as land that was zoned rural.

Mr. Dearborn explained non-residential institutional uses have been developed with specific standards. Specific zoning for non-residential RAIDS are proposed, for example, for Terry’s Corner, Plaza, and Camano Annex. There is provision for certain types of non-residential uses and institutional uses in the rural area. Design guidelines for non-residential uses are in the zoning code. For many non-residential uses in a rural area, if the standards are met, then a building permit is the only permit required, eliminating Use Approval and Site Plan Review. Larger developments will require a Site Plan Approval before a building permit is approved. The permit process has been simplified within the RAID areas. PRD requirements have been modified and includes 75% requirement be in open space.

The old Rural Residential Zone is now the Rural Zone; the old Residential Zone is now called Rural Residential Zone. The names have been reversed because the uses now allowed in the Rural Zone go far beyond residential. Atlas maps and Camano RAID maps are available for viewing by appointment with Planning Department staff in Coupeville. Mr. Dearborn explained 70% of the old Residential Zone was placed in the new Rural Zone, a down-zoning. Existing lots would still be able to be developed. A portion has been converted to agricultural and forestry because it met the criteria; 50% of Non-residential Zoning has been moved to the Rural Zone. If the property is within a RAID, the property may be up-zoned from Rural to Non-residential. Since 1984, 87% of the County has lost development opportunities. He explained the Comprehensive Plan involved many hours of work and the Planning Commission had spent three months out of the last seven months in public hearings reviewing public comments trying to be as fair as possible.

Mr. Dearborn encouraged the public to complete and return comment forms. The end of the comment period will be August 14, 1998. The Planning Commission will complete their review by the end of September. A total of seven Public Hearings will be held before the Comprehensive Plan will be adopted, which is scheduled for early October.

Commissioner Shaughnessy commented that regulations regarding placement of cellular towers needed to be addressed.

Mr. Kwarsick stated a transportation open house was scheduled from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Terry’s Corner Fire Station on Thursday, July 23, 1998, sponsored by the State Department of Transportation, Island Transit, and Island County. The County was selected to pursue the development of a new form of transportation planning providing for efficient transportation services in the future. He acknowledged transportation problems would not be solved by the Growth Management Act, rather Growth Management was a tool to help link growth management with adequate facilities.

Bill Thorn, 1020 Sandy Beach Drive, Camano Island, acknowledged all the hard work that went into the Plan, but felt there were still some fundamental flaws. The Office of Financial Management’s high range projected population of 43,900 was adopted rather than a lower range which would be equivalent to two more "Oak Harbors", or about 166 people each month for the next 20 years. Seventy percent of the newcomers are being directed into the rural areas of the County which he felt was wrong. It is misleading to indicate a 50/50% split between urban and rural could be reached when the only commitment was to study Freeland and Clinton as potential NMUGAs. The Plan does not provide for impact fees and thought the City of Lynnwood was not a good role model. He was concerned there were no standards for placing cellular communication towers. The Plan does not address affordable housing in specific detail for an increasing senior population.

He asked if there was an error in the Supplemental Draft EIS on page 20 since it indicated the density permitted in the rural zone is one dwelling unit per acre rather than one dwelling unit per 5 acres. He felt 30 days was not enough time to review the Plan and encouraged the Board to extend the review period to the maximum allowed under SEPA.

Ronald C. Everist, 13423 11^th, Avenue N.E., Marysville, property owner South Whidbey at the

intersection of Galbreath and Wilkenson Road, had copies of previous submittals to the Board of Commissioners and submitted a copy into the record again. He had planned to go over the highlights of his concerns but thought Mr. Dearborn covered his situation when he explained the management plans for forest and agriculture zones. He thought his property could qualify for the management plan.

Micki Engel, 3530 Tanner Road, Lake Stevens, has a second home in Sunnyshore Acres on Camano. She thanked everyone for their hard work and dedication to complete the Comprehensive Plan. She explained they had 2.3 acres and felt they should be able to subdivide it. They had asked for high density, but saw it was now zoned rural because of salt-water intrusion. Had they been informed of that change, she would have been more prepared. She explained that her husband, Glen Engel and Jerry Purdum installed a well program for their system consisting of three wells, with the water pumped by computer control. Since installation two years ago, the salt-water intrusion problem has decreased on a steady basis and continues to decrease. She stated a graph was available indicating the decline in salt-water intrusion. She asked who to contact in the County regarding the salt water intrusion and felt the maps should be changed.

Chairman McDowell asked Ms. Engel to submit her data regarding the wells in writing to the Board and noted there would be another public hearing on Tuesday, July 28, 1998 in Coupeville.

Commissioner Shaughnessy recommended she speak with Keith Higman in the Health Department regarding the well system.

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