PORT TOWNSEND — City manager John Mauro will communicate Port Townsend’s priorities to partners in the state Legislature, which will convene Jan. 13.
Council members discussed a sticky point on tax reform before they passed the agenda Monday night, but they had a lengthier discussion when it was presented during the Dec. 9 council workshop.
The city’s priorities, which have been the same since 2020, are housing, transportation and climate action. New this year is a priority to fund deferred maintenance at Fort Worden State Park.
The document, to be shared with state lawmakers, lists a top request for each category, followed by sub requests.
“We want to keep it short and sharp,” Mauro said. “We try to keep it one page so that they understand what our priorities are and they can actually use that as a lens to try to look at every bill that comes their way.”
The council’s top request for its housing priority is that the state considers a tax reform that would allow for taxing vacant land. The request includes the specified motivations of discouraging land banking, creating more fairness, delivering more needed infrastructure and incentivizing infill.
Costs for water and sewer services are high, council member Libby Urner Wenstrom said, because the infrastructure is spread out over 88 miles of road while only serving 5,000 homes. Infill can help reduce each household’s share of the costs, she said.
Council member Ben Thomas expressed an interest in seeing nuance hashed out, if a now-hypothetical tax comes to fruition. He said provisions should be considered for property owners to avoid unfairly pressuring them into developing infrastructure onto their land at great expense.
Mayor David Faber said it would be best if this taxing tool were available and it was possible to focus its effect on land that already has infrastructure.
“If it’s vacant land that’s along existing infrastructure, if it’s a big open space that’s theoretically served by a bunch of streets and sewer lines and water lines, that’s costing the rest of the community money,” Faber said. “It’s effectively regulatory capture by a small segment of the population that harms the rest of, not just Port Townsend, but literally the whole world, by creating greenhouse gas emissions, due to vehicle miles traveled, decreasing the availability of housing.”
Thomas said he is interested in developing provisions for agriculture and wildlife.
Faber said he thinks agriculture and urban growth areas are fundamentally incompatible and should not be encouraged or facilitated in city limits.
Faber said the tax reform is very unlikely to be taken up this legislative session. The council needs to start the conversation, he said, because a concept generally must be introduced and then it will take time to get into the miasma of the Legislature.
“We’re looking for local authority to do things that would currently be illegal or against the state constitution,” Mauro said. “Whether or not that’s something that a council in the future would want to impose would be a question for a later date, if that tool were available.”
The top request for the transportation priority is that the state fund the city with $500,000 in design money to get ahead of an eventual roundabout project at the intersection of state Highway 20 and Mill Road.
“Everyone has their own experience with roundabouts in town,” Mauro said. “We all agree that there’s one (Kearney Street) that doesn’t quite meet the sniff test of working.”
Still, Mauro said roundabouts have been shown to offer safety and cost benefits. Having a design would allow the city more control of the outcome at the intersection, as it navigates the dynamic of working with county and state partners.
Having a solid design in place would put the city in place to receive funding if it becomes available, Mauro said.
The city website now hosts a project page for the roundabout at https://cityofpt.us/engagept/page/opening-gateway-sr-20-mill-road-roundabout.
The agenda’s climate action priority is more of a framing than a specific request, Mauro said. The request puts forth to state legislators that they might frame relevant incoming bills in terms of incentivizing increasing urban density.
“We would propose that urban density, where there is infrastructure, is probably the best way to decrease vehicle miles traveled in Port Townsend and beyond,” Mauro said. “There are some benefits for resilience in the community that’s better connected as well. Framing what’s best for the climate in Port Townsend, tying it to our housing goals, is really something that CAC (Climate Action Committee) has been increasingly more clear about and we’d recommend also.”
The final priority is that legislators find steady funding to pour into deferred maintenance for Fort Worden State Park, such that its notable regional impact not be squandered.
The park, currently held up in litigation under a receiver, is estimated to need $150 million to $350 million in capital maintenance over the next 10 years. The city wants to see state support in upholding the asset, which was estimated to have an $87 million annual impact on the region, according to an economic impact report ordered by the Fort Worden Public Development Authority.
The document also included a number of secondary requests. One was that the Legislature take proactive steps to consider systemic issues at state and federal levels affecting the support of those experiencing homelessness. Another was that the state consider protecting and enhancing ferry services, both at Port Townsend-Coupeville and Kingston-Edmonds.
________
Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
