SEQUIM — Allowable housing density is back down in Sequim — if and when subdivision construction starts up again.
Repealing portions of a 2006 ordinance that permitted larger numbers of housing units per acre, the Sequim City Council voted 5-2 Monday night to reduce density in some residential areas.
In Sequim’s R-3 zone, for example, builders previously could put up to 14 homes on an acre of land.
The council’s decision cut that to a maximum of 10 units.
And in areas zoned R-4, where a developer could build as many as 22 units per acre, the top was brought down to 16 units.
“It’s about time,” said Mayor Pro Tem Laura Dubois, just before casting her yes vote for the reduction in density.
High density
Yet the vote simultaneously approved another zone: one that will allow very high housing density.
It’s called R-5, and it would apply only to Sequim’s downtown “sub-area,” a section of the town center the council has yet to define.
So R-5 is moot for now. But the provision for it brought a no vote from member Erik Erichsen, who said only that because of the R-5 provision, he couldn’t accept any of the changes.
Bill Huizinga, meanwhile, sees the lowering of density as a move backward for the city.
The council member is a longtime advocate for the construction of homes that service professionals — firefighters, teachers — can afford.
That’s less likely to happen in Sequim unless developers can build more units per acre, Huizinga has said.
‘Wrong direction’
“I believe it’s a step in the wrong direction, away from work force housing,” he said of Monday’s vote to reduce density.
“The whole gist [is] ‘Let’s undo what the other council did,'” Huizinga added, referring to the newer council members’ desire to reverse what he and former council members voted for four years ago.
Downtown plan
In other action Monday night, the council voted unanimously to assemble an interview panel to select a consultant who will create a plan for Sequim’s downtown.
The team will consist of two “stakeholders,” non-governmental individuals with interests in downtown, plus City Manager Steve Burkett, Planning Director Dennis Lefevre, a few council members and a planning commissioner.
After the selection, the chosen consultant will shape a downtown plan and present it at public meetings from late 2010 into January 2011.
Sequim resident Ron Fairclough stepped up to the podium to express concerns over hiring a contractor who doesn’t value Sequim’s rural atmosphere enough.
“We want to have a city that’s unique,” he said. “We don’t want to have a city that’s patterned after some urban area like Silverdale. . . . every place I’ve lived, I’ve seen urban sprawl.
“I’d like to see our town not be urban sprawl.”
Following Fairclough’s comments, the City Council adjourned its meeting and reconvened, with the same seven members, as the Transportation Benefit District board of directors.
Transportation benefit
This was necessary in order for the seven to look at spending some new revenue from Sequim’s two-tenths of 1 cent sales tax increase, approved by voters in November.
The increase — from Clallam County’s 8.4 percent to 8.6 percent inside Sequim only — is expected to generate $265,000 this year.
To fatten that sum and complete some visible projects, Burkett proposed a $46,500 loan from the city’s own capital facilities fund, to bring the total for street work to $311,500.
The council voted unanimously in favor of that, and chose to spend the money on four projects: a $195,000 overlay on River Road, $47,500 for changes in the Fifth Avenue-Washington Street intersection to make traffic flow more smoothly, a $19,000 “pavement evaluation” study and, finally, $50,000 for sidewalks.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.