Planning commission approves transportation comp plan update

The La Conner Planning Commission forwarded one recommended comprehensive plan update to the town council but tabled action on another during its Nov. 5 public meeting at Maple Hall.

Commissioners were unanimous in advancing updates to the comp plan's transportation element, including language addressing electric vehicle charging stations. The element, reviewed every five years, will eventually include a Transportation Improvement Program schedule.

Deferred was a draft parks and recreation chapter to determine the exact number of park properties in La Conner – believed to be between 29 and 32 – and if the south end Jenson property should be included in that inventory.

Input from the parks commission will be sought.

Commission Chair Bruce Bradburn said his counterpart at parks, Ollie Iverson, had conducted exhaustive research to develop the inventory.

"It's a detailed inventory," Bradburn said. "Ollie said it was very educational, that he found we had a couple of parks he didn't know we had."

Consultant Tom Beckwith provided a brief update on the revitalization plan for the underutilized former south end industrial area.

Now owned by Triton America, the site is recognized for the dilapidated late 19th century Moore Clark warehouse and nearby freezer building.

"We're still working with the landowners to make this a friendly and collaborative process," said town assistant planner Ajah Eills.

Beckwith said there have been 105 responses to an online survey seeking public input on the future of the 4-acre subarea, now zoned commercial ­transitional.

"We'll leave it up for another week or two," Beckwith said.

Beckwith said there is interest by numerous entities to relocate to La Conner's south end, several related to creative arts and instruction and various housing initiatives.

Many ideas have already emerged.

Beckwith said that an interior frame would likely be needed to salvage the freezer building, which could then house an arts complex. The warehouse, he noted, could be dismantled and rebuilt and marketed as a convention center.

Some suggested reopening South Second Street with enough off-street parking to free up the town's paid parking lot for mixed income housing.

Beckwith pointed to what he called the "untapped potential" of the south end waterfront to accommodate roundtrip charter vessels from Seattle.

All options for the properties under study will be entertained before his team embarks on a feasibility phase, he said.

The Beckwith group is funded through a state planning grant and its work will run through the end of December.