SEQUIM — After months of discussion, passions have yet to cool over the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
During Tuesday night’s Planning Commission meeting, a dozen Sequim-area residents rose to the podium to lament the loss of their “small town.”
If the speakers’ comments can be boiled down, the summary might go like this: Sequim is in danger of becoming just another sprawled, mini-malled city, stripped of charm by those who build big boxes and subdivisions.
“I urge you not to be cowed by developers’ wishes,” Real Estate agent Karen Pilchard, Tuesday’s 12th speaker, told the Planning Commission.
The Comprehensive Plan doesn’t adequately promote Sequim’s downtown and “multicultural heritage,” added Sue Frozen.
The City Council, she said, is wont to “make all planning decisions subservient to growth.”
The planning commissioners listened to the 35 minutes of comments. Then they heard the hard news from city attorney Craig Ritchie.
“Prior to the Growth Management Act, you could just say no,” he began, referring to the 1990 state law that requires cities to support high-density development inside their boundaries.
“The I-5 corridor, because of its rapid growth, pretty much got the GMA passed,” Ritchie said.
Sequim, meanwhile, was a tiny town that didn’t have much to do with the suburban sprawl that drove state legislators to enact the law.
“But it applies to rural areas,” said Ritchie. “By law, you have to accommodate growth . . . you can’t stop (new residents) from coming.”
