Planning Commission Meeting - 9/10/08

Planning Commission Meeting. The Planning Commission heard public testimony regarding the Illahee Community Plan on Tuesday evening (9/9/08). There were only a couple of Illahee residents who spoke, though others were in the audience and ready to speak if they thought it necessary.

Decision on September 23rd. There were few comments or questions for the speakers and the Planning Commission will deliberate and come to a decision at their next meeting on September 23, 2008. The next step will be a public meeting before the County Commissioners.

No Opposition. Someone commented that after nearly 3 years of working on the plan, sending it out to the community for comments at every opportunity, and incorporating nearly every comment, and then giving it to the county to go through their public process, that there shouldn't be any opposition, and there wasn't.

Thanks to the County Planners. The community thanked Katrina Knutson and Jonathan Pavy for all their work in getting the Plan through the first stage of the public and county processes. The second stage will be a public meeting before the County Commissioners.

Personal Comments. My personal comments, after working with the community on the Plan from the very beginning, are as as follows:

I thank the Port of Illahee and specifically Dennis Sheeran for co-chairing the initial efforts that got the Illahee subarea planning process started.

I thank all those Illahee citizens who responded to that first questionnaire that appeared in their paper boxes and door steps, for their thoughtful responses and suggestions.

I thank the nearly 100 residents who indicated on the questionnaire that they would be members of a Citizens Advisory Group to work on the Plan.

I thank all those who wrote, modified, edited and otherwise contributed to the various drafts that were prepared over the past almost three years.

I thank those who continued on with the process through the county's Citizen Advisory Group to see the Plan to completion.

I thank all those individuals who contributed financially to cover the expenses such as printing costs of the various drafts of the Plan, along with the help received from the Port of Illahee, the Illahee Forest Preserve, and the Illahee Community Club. As the county knows those printing costs are considerable.

I thank Laurie Jones, our Illahee website administrator, who posted copies of the Illahee Plan on our website, illaheecommunity.com, thereby making the Plan available to more people.

I especially thank our primary editors of the final draft copy that was given to the county, Mary Ann Wright and Vicki Bartlett. They did an unbelievable job of making things read and look right.

I thank the county for accepting so much of what the community prepared and wrote.

I thank the county commissioners, especially in 2006, who patiently listened to Illahee citizens come before them with studies supporting zoning requests, and for their granting the majority of them.

I thank past County Commissioner Patty Lent and the county planning staff who first met with us for the support of the various maps that were needed for the Plan. Without the maps we would not have been able to proceed.

I thank Cindy Read for the excellent job of preparing the numerous maps that are in the Plan that really tell the Illahee story.

I thank the current commissioners and specifically Josh Brown for including the Illahee Community Plan to be reviewed in 2008.

And finally, I thank the people of Illahee for their community spirit and insightful thinking that brought forth a Plan that represents the will of the majority of Illahee citizens.

Jim Aho