Freeland group earns scolding from top planner

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Call it a kick in the pants.

On Thursday night, Island County Planning Director Phil Bakke told the Freeland Sub-Area Planning committee that their years of lengthy discussions are at an end. He told the group to develop a work plan of remaining planning tasks and to set deadlines for completion.

“The committee has been at it for four years, deadlines have come and gone, and Board of County Commissioners will not continue funding county staff to assist the group,” Bakke said.

The Freeland Sub Area Planning Committee was formed in January 1999 for the purpose of developing a comprehensive sewer plan with the assistance of the engineering firm of Tetra Tech/KCM. The sewer plan is near completion.

In addition to the sewer plan, the group has developed a proposed comprehensive land use plan for the Freeland area.

Yet to be decided is whether to recommend that Freeland remain a rural area of intense development, or to become a non-municipal urban growth area, or NMUGA.

With these projects and decisions still incomplete, Bakke had more harsh words for the volunteer committee members.

“County purse strings are tight,” he said. “I can’t staff a spinning wheel. I need to focus of the county’s comprehensive plan.”

Herb Hunt, a committee member, took offense to Bakke’s statements.

“We will move on when our tasks are complete,” he said. “We owe that to the public.”

Freeland is the lone unincorporated community on Whidbey Island still struggling with its planning future. A sub-area planning body in Clinton finished its work more than a year ago.

Bakke told committee members they are experiencing “a classic planning dilemma” as they concentrate on details. He told them they need to finish their plans at some point, then leave it to future planners to adapt the plans to future developments.

“But a comprehensive plan is always evolving. The county’s own plan is revised every year,” Bakke said.