Kitsap County is currently amending its 1998 Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Development Regulations. The Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) requires counties to evaluate and revise, where appropriate, their land use plans at least once every five years. The GMA permits annual review.

However, this is the first review of Kitsap’s 1998 regulations. The review process is undertaken to ensure the plan complies with new laws and to ensure its consistency with the community’s vision of future development.

Darryl Piercy oversees long-range planning as the assistant director of planning at Kitsap County’s Dept. of Community Development (DCD). The department’s director, Bruce Freeland, could not be reached for comment. Piercy described the three categories for amendments to the plan:
1) Text or area-wide revisions: These include general and specific text amendments, a major reorganization of the transportation plan, and an update of the Open Space and Greenways plans. Piercy stated that, outside of the transportation chapter, “changes to the plan are not intended to represent a major policy shift. Rather, “revisions are intended to improve the readability of the plan and to clarify existing policy based upon current needs and data.” For example, the plan will now reflect projects approved during the Capital Facilities Program process completed annually since 1998.
2) Map corrections: These will be made to fix ten (10) mapping errors that occurred when the Dept. transferred information to the maps that had been gathered during public hearings prior to adoption. Individual property parcels not identified properly will now reflect the original use intended.
3) Site-specific amendments: These are pending based upon seventeen (17) citizens’ applications for zoning changes. Staff have compiled reports on each parcel to be forwarded to the planning Commission with recommendations from the DCD. Decisions on these applications will be based upon the Comprehensive Plan in effect at the time of the applications. The revised plan will effect only future applications.

The Planning Commission will review proposed amendments in all three areas during November and forward their recommendations to the County Commissioners, who have the final say on the plan, by early December. The Commissioners may accept, reject, or modify the plan. No dates have been set for the Commissioner’s Hearing on the proposed amendments.

Issues addressed in the plan include: residential, park, commercial, business park, and industrial designations; population density; rural and resource lands; flood plains, watershed plans, runoff, slopes, and shoreline regulations; waste; water quality monitoring; habitat restoration, economic development, and transportation.

On Nov. 27 a public hearing will take place on the revisions currently in progress. Contact the DCD at (360) 337-7181 for details on the hearing.

Bill Palmer, an urban planner and land-use-planning consultant, voiced concerns regarding the plan. Palmer is a former DCD director. He feels the county rushed to adopt the 1998 Plan and he expects that, to some extent, the present process will correct issues not fully addressed at the time of adoption.

Palmer observes that Kitsap County has been reluctant to deal with site specific applications for the past three years and has refused to consider, this year, any site specific applications that would change an urban growth area’s boundary. He stated that, “The Washington State GMA drives a prescriptive approach to planning that forces people to go where land use planners say they should go, rather than an incentive approach that provides inducements to encourage people to locate in urban areas. The latter method works better in the long term.”

Among the important issues for consideration in the current amendment process, according to Palmer, is, “The re-introduction of commercial and industrial parcel designations eliminated by the Kitsap County Commissioners in their rush to adopt the 1998 plan. These plan proposals would help to raise the level of usable industrial land in the county. The plan adopted in 1998 eliminated key potential industrial areas that had been previously identified in the 1994 and 1996 adopted GMA plans.”

The tax base from industrial land in Kitsap County must grow to provide jobs for a growing population. This is a complicated process summarized by Zoltan Szigethy, Executive Director of the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council (EDC). “The state has told us we will have a certain increase in population over the next 20 years which requires we anticipate a certain labor force. Some will be industrial jobs, in high tech or manufacturing industries, and the balance will be commercial jobs in retail and service industries,” he noted. “Primary jobs produce goods and services that are sold outside the county, thereby bringing money into the county to fuel secondary job creation. It was determined in 1997 that each industrial job requires 969 Sq. Ft. of building space. By multiplying this figure by the number of jobs needed and applying other mathematics, the necessary amount of industrial land is determined.”

Based on this analysis, it was determined that approximately 12,000 new industrial jobs are needed by 2017. If Kitsap County is to accommodate population growth projected by the state, 2,925 growth acres must be set aside for industrial use by 2017. Of this, 2,603 acres will be allocated to unincorporated areas. The balance will be allocated to the various municipalities.

Kitsap County has established that the number of non-military manufacturing jobs be targeted to constitute 9 percent of total jobs. Statewide, non-military manufacturing jobs represent 14 percent of total jobs. In Kitsap County, non-military manufacturing jobs currently represent only 2.9 percent of total jobs.

According to Szigethy, “The political decision regarding what level of projected growth is to be absorbed by the county vs. the cities, and urban growth areas vs. rural areas, is negotiated within the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council. This Council is a combination of elected officials from the county and municipalities. Once this decision is made, planners figure out how much additional commercially zoned land is needed to accommodate the targeted work force levels. Zoning decisions are then worked out in each jurisdiction regarding where growth will occur.”

Vivian Henderson, Executive Director of the Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners, is also concerned about the county’s land use planning — from a residential perspective.

Henderson has 20 years real estate sales experience in the county and is a past president of the Kitsap County Association of Realtors. She has observed with alarm that fewer young families desiring rural residences, “...can afford to jump through the many hoops established by the Comprehensive Plan and the Critical Areas Ordinance,” to build a home outside of the urban areas.

The result, according to Henderson’s professional experience, is that, “...only wealthier people can afford to live in rural areas,” and “young families are being forced into areas designated for urban growth.”

Henderson refers specifically to a land use initiative favored by Commissioner Tim Botkin called “Smart Growth” and an agenda she sees as favored by Commissioner Chris Endresen, “...to make it more difficult and expensive for people to live in rural areas.”

According to Henderson, “Nothing will stop Commissioners Botkin and Endresen from imposing the strictest land use restrictions they possibly can.” The Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners mission is, “To free private property from unreasonable government regulation; work for responsible wildlife and habitat protection and for conservation of natural resources; and, elect and support politicians who defend the rights guaranteed to owners of private property by the United States and Washington State Constitutions.

Endresen’s position on growth management is that we need to follow state law. “It is not my goal to restrict growth,” Endresen stated. “I support Smart Growth, reducing sprawl, and incentives that encourage a sustainable and livable Kitsap County for the future. I support a variety of housing levels in a variety of areas.”

Endresen observed that the Kitsap County Association of Realtors and the Home Builders Association have worked with the county on the Smart Growth Committee.

Issues such as industrial land development and rural development ordinances are at the very heart of land use planning. Growth vs. anti-growth positions often clash in rural areas because many people choose rural areas as an alternative to urban centers and urban sprawl. Economic growth, however, is very closely aligned with land use regulations.

Henderson noted that, “The tax burden to rural property owners for the costs of government and services is increased when fewer homeowners exist to share these expenses.” The same is true for the industrial and commercial property tax base.

Citizens can get participate in the land use amendment process by attending the Nov. 27 Planning Commission hearing, which will be held at the fire station in Silverdale. The Final Docket for the proposed amendments and revisions to the Kitsap County Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Development Regulations can be reviewed at www.kitsapgov.com.

The Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners website is www. kitsapalliance.org. Learn more about the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council at www.kitsapedc.org.