Housing element gains preliminary approval

The first round of drafting a new housing element for La Conner’s comprehensive plan is in the books, but more chapters await.

The town’s planning commission last week granted preliminary approval of the comp plan element, which addresses housing capacity and population projections for the town issued by the Skagit Council of Governments in accordance with the state Growth Management Act.

Final approval requires further review and public input, said Town Assistant Planner Ajah Eills, who has compiled a detailed land use capacity analysis for La Conner’s residential zones.

Eills said the housing element draft will be posted on the Town website for public comment.

“It will be up for the month of July,” Eills said following the commission’s 40-minute June 18 meeting at Maple Hall. “During that time, it will also be sent to neighboring jurisdictions for comment as well.”

After the public comment period, the Town’s planning staff will review and integrate into the draft the input received. The planning commission will then be presented the updated housing element draft in August for additional review, Eills said.

Eills stressed that housing element updates are based on maintaining compliance – and therefore state grant eligibility – with the GMA.

Commission chair Bruce Bradburn revisited his concerns with state and county mandates that the town plan for targeted levels of population growth – nearly 125 new housing units over the next 20 years – despite the town’s constrained geography.

Bradburn has said he would prefer that La Conner be allowed to prepare for population growth in more general terms.

“The town only has 455 acres,” he said. “The county has not given us any additional land.”

There has been increased development of vacant lots and construction of accessory dwelling units – described variously as “density” and “in-filling” – plus made code changes allowing more residential usage of commercially zoned buildings since the state’s adoption of growth management standards in 1990.

“We have to plan to accommodate for housing for all income levels,” Eills reminded commissioners. “We get (population) projections that come down from the state to the county to us.”

Eills said the Town is charged with showing it is possible to build housing units that would meet those population projections.

“We need a comp plan that is up-to-date legally,” she said, “and that the (state) Department of Commerce can check off.”

She said the recently completed land use inventory and analysis indicates the town can meet projected local population levels.

At the meeting’s end, commissioner John Leaver took note of a federal judge’s ruling on June 17 that BNSF Railway owes the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community $395 million for violating terms of an agreement allowing the railroad to run trains across a strip of the tribe’s land north of La Conner.