PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners and Port Angeles City Council members sat on opposite sides of a table Monday and waved white flags at one another over the issue of annexing territory east of the city.
The city agreed to a 10-year moratorium on annexing parts of the eastern urban growth area, or UGA.
The county pledged to help fund extending sewers into the region.
Without sewers, both sides agreed, the area won’t be worth annexing — nor will it produce optimum revenue for county coffers if it stays outside the city limit.
With sewers, “there’ll be a larger pie to divide,” said County Commissioner Steve Tharinger, D-Dungeness.
“Without that, we don’t have much to talk about.”
Revenue-sharing plan
As for the UGA’s real estate and sales-tax base, the city and county agreed in principle on sharing the revenues to help with funding countywide services such as the jail.
On another topic, the governments agreed to clear jointly a right of way to the Elwha River so federal contractors can build a water treatment plant once the Elwha Dam is removed.
Federal authorities have chosen the steep, unstable Crown Z Water Road for their construction access road, which they say will cost $1 million to make safe for heavy equipment.
Both the county and the city prefer an approach on Kaycee Way and the abandoned Milwaukee Road railroad right of way.
City-county cooperation on the project also would provide room for the Olympic Discovery Trail and afford another access to the Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation.