Updated Town Comp Plan focus of special meeting

A Town Planning Commission Open House drew a full house Monday night.

All chairs around the table, including a piano stool, were filled when the public was invited to peruse and discuss updates proposed to the Town’s Comprehensive Plan during a one-hour forum at the La Conner Civic Garden Club Building.

More than two dozen people attended, both new and long-time residents and business owners among them.

Residents received notice of the meeting in their October utility bills and the meeting was posted on the Town’s website.

“This is great,” said Commissioner Linda Talman. “We didn’t think there would be this many people come out tonight.”

The local panel has labored for more than a year, often during sparsely attended sessions, revising what is essentially a blueprint for community goals and development going forward.

The new draft document will be made available for review on-line and at Town Hall and La Conner Regional Library, said Town Planner Marianne Manville-Ailles.

The public is invited to comment on the plan either prior to or at the regular Dec. 4 Town Planning Commission meeting.

The Town Council will ultimately take final action on the Comp Plan revisions, in January at the earliest, Manville-Ailles said.

The La Conner Comp Plan is unique in that it must adhere to Shoreline Management and Historical Preservation mandates while addressing universal community elements such as housing, land use, transportation and economic development.

The La Conner Comp Plan was last updated in 2005.

Because that plan was so well crafted, relatively few alterations were necessary this time around, Manville-Ailles and Talman said.

“There are no big changes in terms of land use,” Manville-Ailles said. “It was just a matter of updating numbers. That was the primary focus of our updates.

“Mostly,” she said, “it was a matter of cleaning up verbiage and adding new charts that replaced ones that were outdated.”

Talman concurred.

“We haven’t changed much,” she said. “Just a little clarifying. We’ve retained the values and all those aspects that residents and businesses hope to preserve.

“I think it reflects the community’s desires in many ways,” added Talman. “You can’t make everybody happy all the time, but we can make most people happy.”