Town comp plan’s parks element under review

Building a new recreation and leisure activity model here continues to be a work in progress.

Town officials are stressing the progress part.

A first draft of an updated Parks Element to be included in La Conner’s Comprehensive Plan has been completed and made ready for Planning Commission review.

Planner Michael Davolio said he and Parks Commission Chairman Ollie Iversen had reviewed edits made by former planner Marianne Manville-Ailles to the Parks Element proposal and together had made further changes for inclusion in the present draft.

“There are only a few more changes that need to be made to the draft Parks Element,” Davolio said in his Oct. 5 report to the Planning Commission.

After the commission’s formal review, which is anticipated at its next meeting, the proposed updates will be forwarded to the state Department of Commerce, he said.

“Our goal,” Davolio said, “is to have it go to the Town Council by the end of the year or the first meeting in 2022.”

Much of what is in the draft report is from the town’s 2013 Parks Plan.

Davolio said he has added a section on public involvement to reflect Parks Commission survey work. An inventory of La Conner’s parks, recreation areas and open spaces has been taken and he and Iversen took photos of those sites.

The 2013 plan lists more than two dozen properties totaling about 40 acres. One of those is the nearly two-acre former Maple Avenue ballfield, which has since been rezoned for a residential development and 24,000 square-foot public park. The future park will comprise 30 per cent of the old ballfield site.

The Town Comprehensive Plan is designed to offer guidance as La Conner, composed of approximately 255 acres, about one-fifth of which lie within a National Historic Preservation District, develops a vision for future actions regarding population density, land-use decisions and related quality of life issues.

The Parks Element represents one of several key comp plan components, including those related to economics, housing, transportation and the environment.

The planning commissioners unanimously endorsed a handful of proposed municipal code changes at their October meeting, revising conditional use of overnight camping in town. The town planner will be able to permit overnight camping in Pioneer Park and at the La Conner school campus for special events.