Planning board confronts housing projection demands

In terms of solving a longtime housing shortage here, the town is being asked to make the impossible possible.

It will take about 20 years to tell if La Conner is successful.

Town Planning Commission chair Bruce Bradburn had some gripes when reviewing state and county mandates that La Conner prepare to add 124 new housing units – one-third of which would serve low-income residents – between now and 2045.

Bradburn called that a “pipe dream.”

“It’s fine to say we have a goal to provide more family housing in town,” he said.

Town Assistant Planner Ajah Eills, who presented a comprehensive plan housing element text for commissioners to review at their June 4 meeting, said the numerical projection is legally required.

“It just bugs me that SCOG (Skagit Council of Governments) can get together and tell this little town that we have to provide 124 new housing units,” Bradburn said. “To do that, we would have to get rid of our (building) height restrictions. We’ll have to go up. We can’t go out.”

“We’re landlocked here,” resident Debbie Aldrich said. “Burlington can expand.”

Commissioner Sommer Holt suggested that the town needs to “figure out how we can meet their wording but be true to who we are.”

Eills said she was confident wordsmithing can be accomplished to balance state and county goals with what’s feasible locally.

Town Planner Michael Davolio also noted that The Port of Skagit has expressed a desire to provide future workforce housing at La Conner Marina. That would help the town meet its mandate to plan for a half-dozen new units per year over the next two decades.

That’s because the marina is located within town limits.

Davolio and Eills reminded the commission that the town must show an intent to plan for the additional housing to be eligible for state Department of Commerce grants.

“At least I got my gripes in on this,” Bradburn said.

Resident and former longtime planning commissioner Linda Talman also shared a gripe – she politely termed it a concern – about the public notice process for June 4 hearings conducted at Maple Hall by Hearing Examiner David Lowell. She showed photos of a small sign nearly at ground level advertising the hearing.

“I’m concerned about getting the word out on meetings,” she said. “People weren’t aware of where and when the hearings were. We can do better.”

Eills said the town had met all public notice requirements for the hearings. Information was posted on the town website, published as a legal notice in the May 15 edition of the Weekly News, and affected property owners were contacted by mail.

“I think we can do better,” Talman stressed. “I think we can do lots better and not just the bare minimum.”

Eills said she could explore whether the town’s public notice standards can be revised.

In the meantime, town officials are weighing options for revamping the old south end industrial area, the subject of a state planning grant award. Davolio said consultants were invited to view the site last week to ask questions and gather information.

“What we’re looking for (now) is not an actual plan,” Eills said. “We’re looking for a consultant who can work with us and the community on how to develop the area.”

Davolio and Eills indicated the south end property could be the subject of a future town community mingle at the Garden Club.

Mayor Marna Hanneman, who attended as an audience member, updated the commission on the Jenson Property, also on La Conner’s south end, and sold in 2022 to the town at a reduced price. A wide variety of uses – housing, community gardens, a food forest and others – have been suggested for the undeveloped half-acre.

Hanneman said she had met with officials of Skagit Home Trust to assess their level of interest – if any – in doing something with the property.

“The ball is in their court,” she said.

Public input will ultimately determine the site’s fate, Hanneman said.

“We just want to get a feel for what direction our constituents want us to go,” she said.

“What we’ve learned (about the Jenson Property) is there are a whole lot of opinions.” Davolio said.

Eills assured that nothing concrete will take place at the Jenson Property anytime soon.

“We don’t have the resources to develop the property at present,” she said.