La Conner south end redevelopment concepts, options unveiled

A detailed presentation, insightful questions and dreams of the future for La Conner's south waterfront and long underutilized former industrial area marked a nearly two-hour Dec. 11 public forum at Maple Hall.

A large audience – at one point requiring Town Administrator Scott Thomas to set up additional chairs – attended the workshop, which explored potential zoning and code revisions and design concepts for the four-acre site commonly known as the old Moore-Clark property.

Consultants Tom Beckwith and Julie Blazek and town planning staff led the program.

They shared steps taken since August to draft a revitalization plan for the area, once a bustling hub home to the Moore-Clark fish feed manufacturing plant and since-demolished iconic San Juan Islands cannery building.

"This," said Planning Director Michael Davolio, "will be a plan that identifies possibilities and potential impacts of those possibilities in the area." It is funded by a state grant that Davolio said was awarded to La Conner because the south end has been largely underused since Moore-Clark's closure and relocation to Vancouver, B.C. in the early 1990s.

Attendees asked about the posture of Triton America, the property owner. They sought answers to potential flood, parking and traffic flow impacts.

In response to a question from resident Joan Cross, Beckwith said a Triton representative has been kept apprised of the planning project.

"This property isn't a priority for them," Beckwith said, whose focus is the high-tech and aviation sectors. "They're building aircraft. They're a passive party, not antagonistic, just disinterested."

Beckwith said Triton acquired the property as a favor to the late Vaughn Jolley, who for years had sought without success to transition the old Moore-Clark plant to a mixed-use commercial/residential area.

Beckwith noted that Triton went to considerable expense cleaning debris left by a tenant.

Thomas said the Town has filed a complaint that spurred Triton to examine present issues with the property, most notably public safety hazards posed by the vacant and dilapidated 19th century warehouse building known to locals as "Big Blue."

Demolishing the warehouse – the plan recommends it be torn down and rebuilt – would solve the public hazard aspect but leave unresolved the under-utilized state of the property.

The Beckwith team, guided in large measure by input received from a public survey, has drafted design concepts for future land uses in the area based on ­anticipated zoning and municipal code modifications.

Development opportunities for the area suggested by the Beckwith consultants last Wednesday included but weren't limited to affordable workforce housing, produce sales, performing and fine arts venues, marine-related services, craft studios, a farmer's market, festival space, historical interpretive exhibits, group picnic areas, a hill climb from South Third to Douglas Street and an interior pedestrian path from Third to First Street.

The plan incorporates a Town concept calling for extension of First Street to Caledonia past the concrete block Moore-Clark freezer building and the aging warehouse, which stands partially on the public right-of-way.

Several participants, including Dave Buchan, had attended an initial Sept. 30 workshop, allowing them to offer informed comments and ask specific questions of the evening's presenters.

Buchan, for instance, noted that if south end revitalization were a phased development, it could provide time to plan for long-term flood mitigation in the area.

Madeleine Roozen stressed the importance of working with south end stakeholders such as the Upper Skagit Tribe, which owns the former Puget Sound Freight Lines building at South Third and Sherman streets.

"We have reached out to Upper Skagit, Swinomish, The Port of Skagit and Skagit County," assured Assistant Planner Ajah Eills.

"We'd be looking at changing the zoning from commercial transitional in the sub-area," Eills answered in response to Bob Raymond's question regarding what planning and code decisions would drive south end redevelopment.

Beckwith, terming the planning a "work in progress," said his team anticipates completing a draft document for review within a few weeks. He said that specifics related to traffic, parking and flood protection would be addressed in a planned action SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) process allowing preapproval of projects conforming with the south end plan.

He said his team most recently has been engaged in financing and implementation strategies for the area's revitalization.