SHINE — Although the Kitsap County Association of Realtors took a stand this week against “the future industrialization of Hood Canal,” the Jefferson County Association of Realtors president says his group is unlikely to do the same.
The Kitsap Realtors’ position was lauded by the spokesman for Hood Canal Coalition, the group that has opposed Jefferson County’s only existing industrial proposal on Hood Canal: Fred Hill Materials’ more than $15 million “pit-to-pier” project.
“That’s the first industrialization out of the box, so that is the one on the horizon,” said the coalition’s John Fabian, a Shine resident.
“I think it is a very important endorsement of the work that we have done for a number of years. And it comes from an important group that is part of the fiber of our community.”
Shine-based Fred Hill Materials’ operation would move gravel on a four-mile-long conveyor belt to a 1,100-foot pier proposed on Hood Canal south of the floating bridge.
From the pier, sand and gravel would be loaded on barges and delivered to locations throughout Puget Sound and beyond.
The Kitsap Realtors’ position did not sit well with Dan Baskins, Fred Hill spokesman, lobbyist and project manager, who said: “The Realtors hypocrisy is embarrassing.”
He noted that many of them make a great deal of money thanks to the Navy Base Kitsap’s Bangor submarine base, the largest industry in that county.
“These are the people who have benefited by ‘Trident Bay’ being there,” Baskins said of the missile-capable submarines.
Fred Hill Materials has also benefited from the sub base, providing more than 800,000 yards of ready mix and additional materials to help construct the base, home to nuclear submarines, a training facility and housing development.
While Kitsap Realtors are committed to their position, it is not one necessarily shared by agents and brokers in Jefferson County.
“We discussed it years ago and decided to not take a position,” John Eissinger, Jefferson County Association of Realtors president, said Thursday.
“It’s not on any future agenda at this point.”
