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Staff outlines comprehensive‑plan growth targets, UGA expansion options; county must decide final UGA
Summary
City planners presented Oak Harbor’s proposed 20‑year growth targets and recommended urban growth area (UGA) expansions and trades to Island County to accommodate a residential deficit; no formal action was taken—commissioners asked about utilities, traffic and timing.
City principal planner Kat Kamack briefed the Oak Harbor Planning Commission on June 10 on the 2025 comprehensive‑plan update and the city’s input to Island County about redistributing countywide growth allocations. Kamack said Oak Harbor’s current target on the table is 3,735 housing units (the city’s share of the county allocation), representing roughly 67% of the overall county allocation under discussion. The city and county must agree on how much of that allocation the city will accommodate inside the city limits and how much will remain in the unincorporated UGA.
Kamack said the county calculated existing capacity in the UGA at roughly 464 housing units, producing a deficit of about 1,333 units that the county must accommodate. Using the county’s baseline of six units per acre, staff calculated that the UGA needs about 222 acres to accommodate the deficit; the city’s letter to the county proposes more than that as options, totaling roughly 250 acres of expansion in several areas and additional options that bring the total acreage discussed in the letter to a larger package (the letter package is reflected as 434 acres when Swantown options are included).
Staff described two tools: trading constrained lands inside the current UGA and proposing expansion areas that are contiguous and serviceable. One trade example is a 26‑acre commercial parcel near Crescent Harbor Road and Torquito Road that the city proposed trading because it is partly in an accident potential zone and a high‑noise area, making development difficult. Suggested receiving areas for that trade include the Highway 20/Waterloo area and Fort Nugent/Boone Road, which staff said are more serviceable and contiguous to the city.
Other expansion options described in staff materials include parcels near Heller Road and Crosby Avenue (wetland‑heavy but with developable street frontages) and areas north of Highway 20 (Waterloo/Fort Nugent) that staff said are contiguous and easier to serve. The City Council also asked staff to include areas along Swantown Road/Hillcrest as a strategic option despite their noncontiguity to existing city limits; staff noted those areas may be harder to service and may not immediately contribute to the 20‑year target unless annexations or sewer extensions occur.
Commissioners asked about utilities, serviceability and traffic. Kamack said annexation and sewer extension typically happen when property owners or developers are motivated to connect, and the city prefers piecemeal annexations that are contiguous; she also said there are mechanisms—such as frontage improvement agreements and payback provisions—to allow property owners to extend sewer and be reimbursed when others connect. Regarding traffic, a commissioner requested additional transportation analysis; Kamack said that if the project moves to an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), transportation impacts would be studied as part of that process.
No formal action was taken; staff requested the commission’s feedback and said the next steps are to finalize growth targets, prepare draft plan elements (including a climate element), hold public open houses and potentially run an EIS concurrent with the update. Kamack estimated a target completion of December 2025 but cautioned the schedule could slip.
