M I N U T E S KITSAP COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS September 8, 2003 The Board of Commissioners met on the above-stated date. Present were Chair Jan Angel, Commissioner Chris Endresen, Commissioner Patty Lent, County Administrator Malcolm Fleming and Clerk of the Board, Opal Robertson. (THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS' PUBLIC MEETINGS AND PUBLIC HEARINGS ARE AUDIO AND VIDEO TAPED). ITEMS SET FOR TIME CERTAIN: 7:00 PM) Meeting Called to Order with Pledge of Allegiance. 7:00 PM) Public hearing to receive oral and written testimony regarding: Kitsap County Comprehensive Plan Amendments, Phase I; Proposed Policy and Text Revisions and Sub-Area Plan review for the South Kitsap Industrial Area (SKIA), Kingston and South Kitsap Urban Growth Area (SK UGA)/Utility Local Improvement District (ULID) #6. 1) Presentation by Community Development staff. 2) Open for public comments. Chair Angel gave the ground rules for tonight's meeting stating discussion/comments would be taken on the Comprehensive Plan Amendments, Phase I per each section and individuals could comment on those sections. She said prior to each section, staff would give a summary. Kamuron Gurol, Community Development Director, said staff will recommend that the Board continue this matter to September 22, 2003 for further discussion after tonight's hearing due to some confusion as to what topics would be discussed tonight and what would be discussed on the meeting of September 22, 2003. He said when staff sent notices to county residents, the topics were divided into two phases; Phase I included proposed Policy and Text Revisions and the three sub-area plans and Phase II included Limited Areas of More Intense Rural Development and Site Specifics Amendments. Gurol said because some aspects of the planning process are still being completed, staff is recommending that the Board continue this meeting to September 22, 2003 for all topics. Relative to interim rural forest, he said the Board will take comments but the Planning Commission just recently finished its work on this topic and has not yet signed its formal findings of fact and recommendations to the Board. He said once the document has been signed, it will be posted to the county's web site for public review with additional comment time on the 22nd of September. Jason Rice, Department of Community Development, said before the Board for consideration are revisions to the Comprehensive Plan dated May of 1998 and revised June of 2001. Rice said the revisions include modifications to policies and updated information to the following chapters: the introduction, the land use chapter, chapter 2 of the rural resource lands which is chapter 3 and the housing chapter which is chapter 6. He also said included in the Board's packets are the Findings of Fact and Recommendations from the Planning Commission. Policy and Textual Revisions: Barbara Kitchens, Heartwood Consulting/private, submitted an information packet to the Board and said she along with others had taken the text amendments and the changes to the comprehensive plan and addressed them individually, summarized and included a reference to either county or state regulations. Dusty Meyer said ignorance is expensive. She reminded the Commissioners that they worked for the public and had promised to protect our way of life. She asked the Commissioners to honor the Growth Management Act and said cities grow up not out. Dave Jones, Kitsap County Association of Realtors, states that it is difficult to speak on issues when the agenda is not published in time to prepare for written or verbal testimony. He felt it is inappropriate and wrong for last minute changes to be presented on issues. Mike Eliason, Kitsap County Association of Realtors, concurred with Dave Jones and was specifically concerned about being told that interim rural forest issues would not be discussed and then discovered later that they will be. Chair Angel apologizes regarding the confusion about the interim rural forest issue stating she has addressed this matter with staff. Jerry Harless, South Kitsap resident, addresses the Board with concerns about what is not in the policy revisions, stating specifically that Section 215 of the Growth Management Act required Kitsap County by September 1, 2001 to evaluate its comprehensive plan and compare it to actual growth and development trends in the county to determine if the policies and the actual development were consistent with each other. He said if not, then the County is required to implement measures reasonable and likely to increase consistency within the following 5-year period. Matt Ryan, Brownsville resident, said he would like to see an effort to reduce the number of non-conforming lots. He said it would be foolish not to plan for growth and asked the Board not to listen to "nay sayers". Vivian Henderson, Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners, said tonight's agenda included a lot of information and sympathizes with property owners as it relates to accessory dwelling units and conforming and non-conforming lots. Richard "Dick" Brown said the County has been going through this litany of changes for 10 years. He said it is difficult to determine what changes need to be made and then the night of the meeting, discover that the agenda has changed. He believes the buildable lands study should be completed. Linda Cazin, Indianola resident, said since the Growth Management Act, Kitsap County has had struggles and then significant progress. She said the County need to encourage urban growth, which is the goal of Growth Management. Interim Rural Forest (IRF): Kamuron Gurol, Community Development Director, states this area comprises approximately 54,000 acres of this land use designation within Kitsap County. He said this is an area of the Comprehensive Plan that calls for follow-up planning work to be done that was initiated earlier this year. He said the Planning Commission just finished it work on this topic on September 2, 2003 and the Board of Commissioners have not yet received their findings and recommendations. Gurol said the Planning Commission recommends that the Board not adopt any changes to interim rural forest this year. After signed by the Planning Commission, he said these recommendations would be available on the County's web site. Gurol recommends comments be taken tonight and continued to the September 22, 2003 public hearing. Mike Eliason said he would provide detailed written comments on this issue later. He said these forest properties belongs to private owners and action need to be taken on this matter. Marie Hebert, Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribal Council, states the Tribe is concerned about the potential rezoning of some 54,000 acres of rural forest land and supports the Planning Commission recommendation to retain the current interim rural forest lands zoning until further analysis and discussion of alternatives has occurred. Deanna Pierson, Bear Lake Community Association, said she did not have a problem with other people using their lands the way that they intended but is concerned about gun ranges in interim rural forest areas. Frank Mahaffay, Kitsap County Association of Realtors, states since interim rural forest was not listed on the agenda, the Board should strongly consider not receiving comments on this matter. Dawn Pucci, Suquamish Tribe, recommends the Board take no action at this time and that this is a huge process being crammed into a small space of time. She said the Tribes supports clustering developments in the rural areas and supports the landowners wanting to add flexibility for the use of their land and planning process but did not agree with bonus densities. Linda Cazin, Kitsap Citizens for Responsible Planning, agrees with the Planning Commission that it is premature to make changes to the interim rural forest program. Jon Rose, Olympic Property Group, addresses the Board with concerns about rash changes to the interim rural forest program and asked that the Board not study this matter to death and to move forward on adopting policies and the implementing. Matt Ryan said he has reservations about permanent conservancy where it belongs to everybody and nobody is responsible. He believes the best system is one that has private ownership and individual responsibility and stewardship. Ron Ross said the interim rural forest plan was developed approximately five years ago and it was stated at the time that it was not necessarily a good plan but could be changed within a year. He said that one-year was up approximately 4.5 years ago. He said it is time to move forward on this matter. Charlie Burrow, Kitsap Citizens for Responsible Planning, states he wholeheartedly endorses the Planning Commission recommendation to delay any zoning change until all responsible forest preservation incentive programs including transfer of development rights, clustering and taxes have been fully evaluated and implemented. Vivian Henderson, Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners, said she is tired of people who live in rural areas continually testifying that they want everybody else to live in urban areas and hopes that the Board will consider where these individuals live when they ask the Board to take choices away from other people. Linda Niebanck, McCormick Land Company, agrees that it is time to act. She said the Planning Commission and others who spoke earlier have placed their hopes on a transfer of density rights (TDR) program. She said Snohomish County has a 3-year experimental TDR program and that is a good way to begin. She believes Kitsap County could support a TDR program but not at the expense of moving ahead with interim rural forest but do both at the same time. She said this designation should have never been called interim rural forest but rather interim rural wooded because it is not forest and that was determined in the appeal process of 1998. Rod Reid, Alpine Evergreen Company, questions whether interim rural forest is the best timber there is in Kitsap County and he responds no – because it did not make the grade of long-term commercial forest that Growth Management wanted set aside. He said this is marginal forestland and his company needed options. Richard "Dick" Brown believes it needs to be decided if the large rural landowners are the solutions to Kitsap County housing problem or are they the problem. He is concerned about individuals having a decent place to live in the future. He believes the Board should move forward on this issue. South Kitsap Industrial Area Sub-Area Plan (SKIA): Kamuron Gurol, Community Development Director, states what is before the Board for consideration is the South Kitsap Industrial Area Plan of November 14, 2002. He said this planning process commenced last year and culminated with a public hearing before the Board on November 14, 2002 with support of that plan at that time. He said the plan did not make it in the 2002 Comprehensive Plan Amendment cycle and is now being considered in the 2003 cycle. Gurol states the plan as amended by the Board in its motion of support is based on a letter from the Port of Bremerton which that some changes to the plan at that time. He said the development regulations dated April 15, 2003 and recommended by the Planning Commission for implementation are also available to the Board. He said staff has undertaken final review of the materials presented tonight and have identified some changes believed necessary to the plan and the regulations. He said the changes have not yet been made available to the general public but have been provided to some of the participants in the planning process. Gurol said these revisions would be posted to the web site. Ken Attebery, Port of Bremerton, states further refinement is needed on the plan and development regulations in order to bring these two documents in line with what the Port understood to be the policy intent of the Board for a number of years, the content and obligation of the 1998 sub-area planning memorandum of understanding and the contents of the County's amended 1998 Comprehensive Plan. He said the Port supports the inclusion of the joint urban planning areas into the existing 1998 urban growth area and supports the ordinances necessary to be applied to the joint planning areas in order to bring the rural wooded lands into the supply of urban lands for jobs in Kitsap County. Bill Mahan, Port of Bremerton, said he is angry and frustrated that the Port has spent five years working with county staff and have invested monies in studies to get to this point. He said the memorandum of understanding was established and agreed upon for a collaborative process to develop the SKIA plan. He said the Board held a public hearing last November on the document and there was virtually no one who opposed the plan, yet today it is discovered that the ordinances and plan has been changed dramatically, excluding everything fought for during the last five years. Mahan believes this is un- responsible and breaks faith with partners in economic development. Rod Reid, Alpine Evergreen Company, said their lands were left off the map again. Relative to uses of the land, he said it would be a nightmare if half of the lands were in one zone and the other half was in a different zone. Dusty Meyer – not present to speak. Linda Niebanck, McCormick Land Company, supports the comments made by Ken Attebery and Rod Reid and suggested a mixed designation that allows either business center or industrial to be used. Mike Eliason asked that deference be given to the Port of Bremerton and all Kitsap County ports, which are the local economic development arms of local government. Chair Angel assured the South Kitsap residents that there would be further discussion and testimony on this matter. Kingston Sub-Area Plan: Laura Ditmer, Community Development, states the Board held a public hearing on this matter on August 4, 2003 and continued it for further comments and discussion to tonight's hearing. As a result of the meeting on August 4th, she said staff is proposing land use revisions for the properties of Sherrard, Waggoner, Bradley and Olympic Property Group. Jason Rice, Community Development, said there was four proposals for modification to the Kingston Urban Growth Area Plan and an analysis and staff report have been done on the proposals. He said the proposals are: Olympic Resource Management – include a portion of their property as part of the urban reserve status as designated throughout the county for future allocations to the Kingston Urban Growth Area; Jean Sherrard – proposal to modify his existing Bainbridge Reliable Storage Unit and designate as commercial; Tom and Ross Waggoner – two parcels totaling 8.85 acres requesting an urban medium designation and Dorothy Bradley – four parcels totaling 4 acres also requesting an urban medium designation. Rice said these were all changes to the preferred alternative as recommended by the Planning Commission. Tom Waggoner spoke in favor of the proposed amendment and agrees with the recommendation by staff. Jon Rose, Olympic Property Group, encourages the Board to consider what is happening regarding population when making the decision whether to adopt Alternative B. Once the population allocation for 2025 is determined, he suggests defining where the urban reserve area would be created now in order to inform people where future growth will take place in Kingston. Betsy Cooper said she agrees with the majority of the proposed recommendations but did not agree with designating the urban reserve at this time. Linda Cazin agrees with Betsy's comments and said Alternative B could accommodate the population that is needed. She said there is no good handle on how much is going to be needed within the next 20 years. Walt Elliot recommends that a traffic and design study be conducted within two years after plan adoption, that the responsibility for plan action be identified in the plan along with target dates and that the process for plan review, evaluation and revision be spelled out for the community in the plan. Jean Sherrard said the properties in his area are zoned differently, one side is medium density residential and the other side is commercial. He said this is a simple change, just move the line over one property and it would give him a conforming use. Suzanne Arness addresses the Board with a general concept of commuting and the flow of traffic in the Kingston area. Utility Local Improvement District #6 – McCormick Woods: Laura Ditmer, Community Development, said the sub-area plan was heard before the Board in the spring of 2002 and at that time staff was directed to develop via the community and the Planning Commission a community plan that brought in an urban village center concept and subsequently develop implementing regulations amendments to the zoning code. The matter was heard before the Planning Commission in the spring and before the Board of Commissioners in August where the hearing and written comments were continued until tonight. Dusty Meyer – not present to speak. Jerry Harless said the sub-area plan is based on an erroneous and illegal population projection and that the location criteria for urban growth areas within the Growth Management Act, Countywide Planning Policies and the Comprehensive Plan were not followed. He said this is an opportunity for the community to come together and work on a vision for an urban growth area for South Kitsap that meet realistic population numbers. Richard Brown – not present to speak. Linda Niebanck, McCormick Land Company, submitted information to the Board regarding information provided at previous hearings on this matter regarding with land use and zoning designations, requested changes to the draft Final UGA/ULID #6 Sub-Area Plan, requested modifications to the proposed Sub-Area Plan, requested modifications to the proposed amendments to the subdivision code and zoning ordinance to implement Ordinance No. 269-2002, special request concerning the master plan ordinance, special request regarding design guidelines and population allocation. She believes this will be a project that the Board will be proud to have put together for Kitsap County. Laura Ditmer, Community Development, said staff would develop a matrix of the items presented with proposed changes for the Board, staff and community to help aid in the decision process. Commissioner Endresen apologizes for the confusion of the newspaper publication. She also mentioned that throughout tonight's comments, she had heard statements such as " staff has agreed or staff agreed throughout the process", but she wanted to clarify that the Board is the one that makes the final agreement and if the staff agrees – that's great but the Board has not seen half of what staff has agreed to. She states items are not final until they have come before the Board, before the public via the public process with an opportunity for comments. Chair Angel said this hearing is continued to September 22, 2003 at 7:00 PM at the Presidents Hall, Kitsap County Fairgrounds. She said the Board will consider additional public testimony on both phases of the proposed amendments for the 2003 Comprehensive Plan Annual Review and Amendment process that includes: Sub-Area Plans Implementing Regulations for ULID #6, Kingston, SKIA; Interim Rural Forest Policy Revisions; Text Policy Revisions as outlined in the final docket; Site Specific Amendments and Potential Limited Areas of More Intense Rural Development designation at George's Corner and Pioneer Way. Chair Angel said the Board would also continue the written testimony until September 26, 2003 at the close of business and those comments should be submitted to the Department of Community Development on all topics previously mentioned. Commissioner Lent suggested that the matrix developed by staff should also be made available to citizens. Public meeting adjourned at 9:30 PM. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS KITSAP COUNTY WASHINGTON __________________________________ JAN ANGEL, CHAIR __________________________________ CHRIS ENDRESEN, COMMISSIONER __________________________________ PATTY LENT, COMMISSIONER ATTEST: OPAL ROBERTSON DATE APPROVED CLERK OF THE BOARD * See Resolution Journal Volume No. 58 ** See Ordinance Journal Volume No. 12 NEXT REGULAR BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING WILL BE SEPTEMER 22, 2003. Visit the County's website at www.kitsapgov.com NOTE: KITSAP COUNTY DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF DISABILITY. INDIVIDUALS WHO REQUIRE ACCOMMODATIONS SHOULD CONTACT THE COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE AT (360) 337-4428 OR TDD (360) 337-7275 OR 1-800-816- 2782. (PLEASE PROVIDE TWO WEEKS NOTICE FOR INTERPRETER SERVICES). KITSAP COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MINUTES, SEPTEMER 8, 2003 Page 224 Page 216