PORT TOWNSEND — Hearing objections from a Port of Port Townsend executive, Mayor Catharine Robinson on Monday night withdrew a city Shoreline Master Program amendment she proposed to “encourage the removal” of recreational vehicles from Point Hudson.
The council, at Councilwoman Michelle Sandoval’s recommendation, opted to unanimously approve Shoreline Master Program language that instead reads: “The goal being ecological restoration of the eastern point” of Point Hudson.
Port Executive Director Larry Crockett, who attended the council meeting, told the council: “We can live with what you did tonight.”
Robinson, in correspondence to the Port last Thursday, told Crockett she planned to bring two amendments before the council Monday night to encourage the Port to engage in a master planning process for the eastern tip of Point Hudson.
That would include a “business plan and economic analysis that will facilitate achievement of this goal,” as the amendment proposed.
Robinson, at Monday night’s City Council meeting, called the proposal merely a suggestion, not a mandate or requirement as part of the Shoreline Master Program, which the council may adopt next Monday.
“I see it as fairly benign,” Robinson told the council.
Strong reaction
Crockett, however, took clear exception to the proposed new policy, strongly urging the council to reject Robinson’s suggestion.
“The Port has for the last two-plus years worked hard at cooperating with the city on this [Shoreline Master Program] process,” Crockett said in a prepared statement to the council.
“We feel we have met the city more than halfway on any number of issues, and we certainly respect the work that the Shoreline Advisory Group and the Planning Commission have done to get us all here to the draft before you.
“Now at the 11th hour, after thinking we were done with those sections dealing with Port property, we are faced with more changes.”
