SEQUIM — This pasture, parched by Sequim sunshine, tells the town’s tale in its 38 acres.
The land is the Booth family’s farm along North Sequim Avenue, just inside the city limit and approved by the Sequim City Council back in 2006 as the next swath to be turned into a major subdivision: Sorrento, a 229-unit tract of single-family homes, duplexes and four-plexes.
Three years later, though, there is no subdivision east of the Sequim Avenue roundabout. The developer, Origen Corp. of Des Moines, Wash., decided not to pursue the project, leaving Realtor Ron Gilles to ask the City Council for a one-year extension of the three-year time frame to start construction.
After a long discussion and plentiful protest from neighbors, the council voted unanimously Monday night to grant the extension.
It came with new requirements that the developer — whoever that turns out to be — connect subdivision streets to existing city streets, but didn’t reduce Sorrento’s density of six units per acre.
‘Un-Sequimlike’
As in 2006, many surrounding residents were furious. They sent letters to the council, calling the subdivision an eyesore and “un-Sequimlike,” and predicting an influx of urban traffic into their peaceful part of the world.
Richard and Dixie Hoffart, for example, wrote to the council that they came to Sequim to enjoy a slower pace; they savor the sight of cattle grazing as they drive past the Booth property.
A series of protesters made appearances at Monday’s council meeting, too, to decry Sorrento’s density. Preserve the open space and protect the creek that runs through it, they urged.
The council was quiet as the public hearing ended, but then member Walt Schubert spoke up.
“I like the cows on that property too,” he said. “I’d love for that to stay that way forever. But it’s not going to. People have property rights.”
When people can’t make ends meet farming and when they want to retire, Schubert added, they should be able to sell their land to a buyer who’ll provide housing for people who — like other Sequim residents — want to live in a rural area.
Clallam County can stay rural, Schubert believes, if the development is limited to the incorporated cities.
That’s where high-density housing belongs, he said, and if the council were to deny projects such as Sorrento, it will “force development out into the county [where it] eats up farmland.”
Gilles, noting that he’s lived in Sequim for more than 40 years, added that his town is bound to get bigger, and residents should accept that.
‘Can’t stop growth’
“You can’t stop growth. People are moving here because it is desirable, and it will continue to be desirable,” he told the council.
Council member Ken Hays was adamant about adding the street-connection requirements to the Sorrento plan, but stressed that he wasn’t trying to trip up the project, and contrary to the perceptions of some, he is not anti-growth.
“Sure, it’s nice to look at cows, but I see development there myself,” he said.
The Booths’ pasture, then, is full of paradoxes. It’s farmland inside the city’s boundaries. It’s also surrounded by residents who don’t want more development to spoil what they love about Sequim.
The City Council has approved a large subdivision, but amid the recession that followed the city’s housing boom, there’s no developer to build the planned hundreds of homes.
Gilles, who will continue to seek a developer to put the project back on track, expressed gratitude to the council for approving the one-year extension — and emphasized that had the members denied it, another builder might come in with an even higher-density project.
With six homes per acre, Sorrento is “at the bottom end” of the permitted density in this zone, Gilles added. The former farmland is zoned R-III, which means six to 14 dwelling units are allowed on it.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
