Sequim City Council political shift on growth gets an early hint
By Diane Urbani de la Paz, Peninsula Daily News
Print This |
Email This
Recent Headlines
Komen drops plan to cut Planned Parenthood grants -- 2/3/12 -09:17 AM
Crane removes blast debris from Sequim marina [**Video**] -- 2/3/12 -02:18 PM
PENINSULA SPOTLIGHT WEEKEND: Olympic Theatre Arts stages ‘Spitfire Grill: A Musical’ -- 2/2/12 -07:02 PM
WEEKEND: Super Bowl blues? Plenty to do around Peninsula -- 2/2/12 -05:34 PM
WEEKEND: First Friday Walk connects community with creators -- 2/2/12 -05:22 PM
In a short, blunt speech during this week's council meeting, Johansen reminded the seven men of what she believes is the message from the Nov. 6 election of four newcomers:
"The voters told you that they were unhappy with the city's direction," she said. "They rejected the cozy good ol' boys' culture."
Johansen, 73, is a supporter of Ken Hays, Laura Dubois, Susan Lorenzen and Erik Erichsen - all elected earlier this month to replace John Beitzel, Ron Farquhar, Don Hall and Bob Anundson.
Some council members have become "friends of developers and real estate interests," Johansen said.
"I wouldn't for a minute attribute malice to anybody," she added in an interview.
Johansen does want the sitting council members to move deliberately as they consider a docket of 10 proposals to rezone dozens of parcels across the city.
If approved, the rezoning would allow commercial, mixed-use or higher-density housing development on some 93 acres.
During Monday's meeting city Planning Director Dennis Lefevre explained each proposal - and several times paused while members of the public, including newly elected council members, stood up to speak for or against them.
Zoning comments
Docket item No. 1, which would turn 9.39 acres near Sequim's eastern edge into a "neighborhood commercial" zone, brought Hays to the podium.
"It looks like commercial sprawl," said Hays, an architect who lives near the parcel.
"It doesn't make sense, frankly."
"Thank you for your comments," Mayor Walt Schubert said.
Docket item No. 5 would change a 2.41-acre piece of land behind the Boys & Girls Club on Fir Street into an R-III zone, allowing 15 to 22 housing units per acre.
Developers Ron Robbins and Sean Ryan hope to build a 52-unit apartment complex there.
"We're looking for the highest and best use" of the land, said Realtor Mike McAleer, the agent urging the rezoning.
"It would provide workforce housing" - affordable to working-class people - "within walking distance of jobs."
"Thank you, Mike," Schubert said.
Hays stepped up again to say that an R-III zoning, allowing six to 14 units per acre, would better suit the area.
"If you cram too many units in," he said, "it would not be all that livable."
When the council considered proposal No. 8 to rezone 37 acres around Deytona Street from R-II to R-III - which would allow hundreds more units - Erichsen came forward.
The retired Hanford Nuclear Reservation physicist asked the council about the "legal implications" if the rezoning is approved now - and then the four new council members come in and disapprove of it.
City attorney Craig Ritchie reached for his microphone, but Mayor Walt Schubert and Councilman Paul McHugh spoke before him.
They both asked Ritchie whether they could run through the docket items, or did they have to answer Erichsen's question now?
Ritchie said nothing to stop the run-through. Lefevre finished the docket.
Then Councilman Bob Anundson issued a speak-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace warning, based on his experience with residents' outcry over subdivisions and commercial projects.
He had to approve those developments because they fit zoning requirements, Anundson said.
Once land is zoned for higher density, city officials haven't much choice but to allow it.
These council meetings are where zoning happens, he added. Once a parcel is rezoned, "it's too late."
Rezoning discusion set
He and the other council members, in the end, didn't yet want to decide on the rezoning proposals.
They voted unanimously to continue the discussion at their Dec. 10 meeting.
That session, expected to be the last one of the year, will start at 6 p.m. in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
McHugh and Councilman Bill Huizinga said they have yet to make up their minds on each rezoning proposal.
Both said they need to read and reflect before voting.
Those two, along with Schubert, are the only sitting members who'll remain come January.
Johansen, in her speech before the docket discussion, had asked the outgoing council members to vote carefully.
"We are all of us neighbors and most of us friends," she said.
"Please remember that you have an obligation to listen to the voice of the voters."
________
Sequim Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: November 28. 2007 9:00PM