PORT ANGELES — The ongoing struggle over the location of the Saturday Farmers Market took an unanticipated detour Friday.
The City Council was set to consider a conditional use permit approved by the Planning Commission in August that had been appealed.
The permit allows the market to operate on a downtown block of Laurel Street closed to traffic for another year, except during the holiday shopping months of November and December.
But after a procedural question about an appearance of conflict of interest at the Planning Commission level, the council voted 6-0, with Councilman Larry Williams abstaining, to send the issue back for reconsideration.
The Planning Commission will now have to determine if its vote was made in accordance with state laws meant to restrict an appearance of conflict of interest.
The Planning Commission must review the procedural question by Oct. 24, City Attorney Bill Bloor said Friday.
Later, Bloor backed off that date, saying the timeline would have to be confirmed.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday and Oct. 26.
The commission’s stipulations regarding the Farmers Market, including that it has to vacate Laurel Street in November and December, are currently in effect.
After a new Planning Commission decision, the three appeals would then be brought back to the City Council assuming the commission approves the permit and stipulations again.
On Aug. 11, the Planning Commission approved the conditional use permit by a 4-3 vote.
During the opening procedures of the City Council hearing on Friday, Williams said that Planning Commission Vice Chair and Port Angeles Business Association membership secretary Cherie Kidd — who Williams faces in the Nov. 8 council election for Position 2 — may have been present at a business association meeting when the issue of the farmers market permit was discussed.
The business association produced a letter sent to the Planning Commission at that meeting opposing the conditional use permit.
Kidd then cast the decisive Planning Commission vote that approved the conditional use permit and its stipulations.
Friday night, Kidd said that she did not participate in the business association discussion that produced the letter and, therefore, had no conflict of interest in voting as a Planning Commission member.
