The actions proposed to be taken by the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council (KRCC) on population projections are an abdication of responsibility.

Their very low growth rate puts us all at risk. This county will never catch up when it comes to having on hand and in the ground the infrastructure necessary to meet our obligations under the Growth Management Act. After we’re buried by new arrivals, the costs will be far higher. Pressures to take drastic actions such a razing your city neighborhoods to build apartments through eminent domain takings may become irresistible.

The continuing over-allocation of populations to Bremerton ignores market forces. Their failure to consider where people coming to the county will most likely locate is ideological insanity. Common sense dictates future allocations be weighted to the south end of the county to absorb the people coming via the bridge and the Kingston area that is building a sewer plant with sufficient capacity to serve the hordes of commuters.

Query, why is it rational to expect 8,352 more people on Bainbridge when their ferries are full, and only 3,000 in Kingston whose ferries are all but empty of foot passengers? Why spend the money to put a foot passenger run into Kingston when we aren’t going to make an effort to house riders close to the dock?

Given the parochial allegiances of city electeds and the diffused responsibilities of the KRCC, I will be greatly surprised if there is a change to this proposal. The best way to break the myopic shackles of the present system is through a county charter that creates a city-county government for the entire county along the lines of New York’s borough system.

Matt Ryan
Bremerton