Afternoon Meeting. The Commissioners met on Tuesday afternoon rather than Monday evening because of the weather and road conditions. Tuesday's conditions were better for getting around and at least four Illahee residents made it to the meeting in spite of some who are still snowed in.
Commercial Corridor Removed. The Commissioners made several changes to the Plan with the most significant being the removal of the Highway 303 commercial corridor, which covers a three quarter mile strip north of Riddell Road, or about 120 acres. The resolution was a little confusing as one section of the resolution read to remove the area from Riddell to Fuson, which would be a half mile strip or 80 acres, and which was reported in the Kitsap Sun article, and another part of the resolution stated to remove the commercial corridor. From the maps presented we know it is the entire commercial corridor and the 120 acres that was removed from the Illahee community boundary. (We realize this is a technical issue, but for the more detailed person we wanted to clarify any confusion early on.)
Impact of the Removal. We have had differing opinions on the removal. Dennis Sheeran and myself, the co-chairs of our early efforts, are of the opinion that this is not a detriment to the Plan, and in some respects makes the Plan easier for the community to work with. We will let others who disagree with us give their side in a later update.
Updated Plan. The Plan will need to revised to make the Commissioner's changes, which means all the maps will need to be updated to reflect the new boundaries. As soon as that happens we will post it on our website illaheecommunity.com.
Commissioners Need to be Thanked. Those who attended the meeting were impressed by our County Commissioners' thoughtful changes and comments regarding the Plan. Each one of them commented on the Plan and the reasons for their changes which would be good to listen to when the meeting is rebroadcast on BKAT. Their actions and reasoned remarks indicated they had spent time looking over even the smaller details which in the end improved an already good Plan. They support community efforts like ours, they worked well together, and we are fortunate to have such good and dedicated Commissioners representing us. Thank you Commissioners Josh Brown, Steve Baurer, and Jan Angel!
County Staff Needs to be Thanked. We also need to thank the County Staff who took our community generated drafts and ran them through the county departments and through the public process, in order to make them compliant with County Code and county procedures. Special thanks to Katrina Knutson, our county planner; Scott Diener, her supervisor, and Larry Keaton, DCD Director. We also need to thank Cindy Read in advance, the map person, who worked all the maps and who will likely be working the revisions.
Website Comments. We are trying to institute a community blog site where Ilahee residents can comment on local issues. Our Illahee Community Updates are put on our website http://illaheecommunity.blogspot.com/ and there is a place to comment.
Kitsap Sun Article and Comments. We would also like to thank the Kitsap Sun and specifically Brynn Grimley for their coverage of the Illahee Community Plan. Brynn's article is in today's paper (Wednesday 12/24/08) and can be accessed on the web. There is a place to comment at the bottom of the article and it is always interesting to see these comments as they are from a more county wide perspective.
Final Thanks to Illahee Residents. We also want to thank Illahee residents for their great support of the Illahee Community Plan. We had approximately a hundred and fifty residents involved in one capacity or another with the Plan and we thank you. There were about a hundred who signed their name to the document. For some it has been a three year endeavor and it is nice to have it finally approved.
Merry Christmas!
Dennis Sheeran & Jim Aho
Illahee again stands out and leads the way for other Communities in Kitsap County. Not only did the County Commissioners approve the plan, they stated that our plan is one that other communities should emulate. Congrats to the CAG, the Port, and all the citizens who worked hard and/or contirbuted for materials and studies. We are lucky and blessed to live in this community with our shoreline, forest, and finest darn people on God's green earth. A special thanks to Jim Aho who has devoted the better part of three years keeping this project on track.
ReplyDeletethe commercial corridor issue is an interesting in that it falls within the Port's boundary area and yet is outside what most people think of Illahee.
ReplyDeletejust how important is it to have a commercial area in a sub area plan? all of the other subarea plans have commercial corridors.
by taking it out does it set a precedent in Kitsap County? do other counties have subarea plans without commercial areas? for that matter, with all the emphasis in the recent past on major malls, and the localized community shops would have disappeared. like the disappearance of the Illahee Store.
so maybe the commissioners are right to approve a plan with no commercial area. just some thoughts.