Editor,

Kudos to the county for finally involving the stakeholders of the urban growth area — the residents and property owners — in talking about the future.

To correct Keith Higman, interim director of Island County planning, stakeholders do not constitute the city planner and occasional elected officials at the county comprehensive plan meetings. Only after significant pressure was any landowner invited to sit in on these meetings. Stakeholders are not unlike the Talking Circle community, which built adjacent to and outside the city limits, in the urban growth area. Because the city parcels were all built-out? Hardly. It’s because they had choice and opportunity not necessarily found within city limits.

Now there are some folks who don’t want that for others in the former growth area boundaries. Remember, in Mr. Higman’s words to Planning Advisory Board member Gail Fleming (October 21, 2015), countywide policy states “…that land shall not be removed from the UGA if urban services have already been extended into the area (County Wide Planning Policy 3.3.11).” Numerous parcels fit that description and more when the Proposed City Sewer Plan is considered.

Most people within the former urban growth area do not wish for rampant and suburban development, they simply want choice, opportunity, flexibility, the ability to be creative and have public policy upheld. These folks are the real stakeholders, Mr. Higman, not city officials, so please keep them involved in your deliberations.

Thank you,

RON KASPRISIN

Langley