PORT TOWNSEND — Port of Port Townsend commissioners are ready and willing to join talks with the Port Townsend and Jefferson County leaders on growth management and economic development issues.
Port commissioners on Tuesday were encouraged by the Port Townsend City Council’s action Monday night to forgo appealing the county commissioners’ Dec. 15 approval of rezoning an area just south of the port’s Jefferson County International Airport.
The 24-acre parcel was rezoned from rural residential to essential public facility-light industrial. The site is proposed to be developed with an estimated eight to 10 light industrial businesses and at least 100 jobs, port officials said. A fire station is also proposed for the area.
The port commissioners all said they wanted to meet with city and county leaders within the two-week time frame that the City Council requested Monday.
In their unanimous action, the council invited the port and the county to join with city leaders within the next two weeks to re-form a Growth Management Steering Committee made up of Tri-Area, county, city and port representatives.
The intention would be to come up with a joint strategy for economic development and growth management countywide, city leaders agreed.
“I’m just very please that there is now an opportunity to move ahead corroboratively with the city and county,” said Port Commissioner John Collins, adding that the port’s strategic plan, which was drawn up last year, would now come into play.
The plan sets out in detail the port’s goals and objectives.
Responding to Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval’s concerns that the port commissioners declined to join a city-county joint meeting in early November, Collins said the problem was that the port commissioners were informed of the meeting only about a week beforehand.
“At the time we didn’t know what the agenda was,” Collins said, adding that the county then was acting in a “quasi-judicial” capacity, and that the county commissioners had not yet acted on the port’s 24-acre rezoning.
At the joint meeting, City Council members and Jefferson County commissioners vowed to collaborate on critical issues of economic development, land use and water planning in what could be a first step toward political unity.
Fractious history
Citing a fractious history of city-county competition for water and development, city and county elected officials agreed that more could be accomplished to benefit their residents if government agencies worked together for a better future.
It was believed to be a first for the government agencies: an attempt to shed a history of fighting over water and economic development.
Monday night, however, City Council members, including Sandoval, voiced doubts that the port and the county were serious about collaboration, which led city leaders to consider filing an appeal in Superior Court over the county commissioners
City Administrator David Timmons proposed the appeal to the council Monday night, saying it would give the city a chance to address its concerns.
Timmons stressed the city did not oppose the port’s proposal but that the city wanted the proposal to be a part of a broader commitment in development.
Newly sworn-in port Commissioner Leif Erickson said he has already talked about the issues with Councilman Dave King, with whom he works at Townsend Bay Marine.
“I was pleased to hear the outcome of the City Council meeting,” Erickson said, adding he was willing to be part of a joint meeting within the two-week time frame the City Council requested.
“We’ve always offered to talk about it and tried to make it happen before, so I’m sure it’s going to happen now,” Erickson said.
Port Commissioner Dave Thompson said he saw any cooperation between the local agencies “as a real plus.”
“I’m certainly in favor of any kind of dialogue,” Thomspon said.
Enough time?
County Commissioner David Sullivan, who watched the City Council meeting at home Monday online via the City Council Granicus video system, said his only concern was whether the Growth Management Steering Committee could be reformed in just two weeks.
He said the county appointed Tri-Area representatives to the committee in 2005, but no meetings took place.
“We have staff looking into whether the appointments lapsed,” he said.
Sullivan said he was glad to see county residents go before the City Council in support of the county commissioners’ approval of the port’s 24-acre rezoning.
“I thought many of the citizens spoke well and I was really impressed with Philip Morley’s presentation,” Sullivan said.
Saying any city appeal of the county commissioners action would “sacrifice the county’s opportunity” to create economic development, Morley pleaded with the City Council saying, “I fear that a city LUPA appeal would set the city and county at odds.
“We can cooperate or we can litigate. I would vote to cooperate.”
As proposed, the port would plan the site near the airport with environmentally friendly stormwater drainage and visual buffer areas around the perimeter, install a water system from an unused nearby Jefferson County Public Utility District well, build roads and lease sites at a lower rate to lure new businesses.
The light industrial site would be similar to what the port has already developed at its Boat Haven park in Port Townsend.
City officials had raised concerns that the port was not specific enough as to what types of industry could develop at the site.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
