Poulsbo planning commission recommends Sandstone Ridge housing subdivision to hearing examiner amid concerns over stream buffer, sidewalks and privacy

The Poulsbo Planning Commission voted June 1 to recommend approval to the hearing examiner of the Sandstone Ridge planned residential development and preliminary plat, a proposal for 87 homes on just over 18 acres east of Knoll Road.

City senior planner Edie Berghof told the commission the project complies with Poulsbo zoning, subdivision regulations and the city comprehensive plan as conditioned. “As conditioned, the project is consistent with and meets the City’s regulations and all other applicable City regulations,” Berghof said, noting tree-retention and open-space requirements and that the SEPA appeal period closed the same day with no appeals filed.

The developer, represented by Craig Steepe of JTM Holdings and other consultants, said the team has planned the subdivision around a recently designated fish-bearing roadside ditch and the related 200-foot critical-area buffer. “We spent the last 1½ years … planning this project, anticipating that, in fact, this is going to be a fish-bearing stream,” Steepe said, describing how the buffer shaped lot and trail placement. The applicant is proposing 87 units; the zone allows up to five units per acre (a theoretical maximum of 90 units on the site), and the applicant said proposed lots meet zoning requirements.

Why it matters: the project will add nearly 90 houses at Poulsbo’s eastern boundary and requires coordination with county road standards and environmental protections for the newly identified stream. Neighbors said the development could change traffic patterns, reduce privacy for properties along the north boundary and remove significant forested habitat; staff said conditions and permits will address many details during engineering and grading reviews.

Most of the hearing focused on two contested technical issues. First, the project must provide a publicly accessible pedestrian connection from the site’s northeast corner to a crosswalk on Knoll Road. Planning condition 18 and engineering condition 35 require that connection to be located “outside of all designated critical areas and associated buffers … to the maximum extent possible.” The site team said the full length of the ditch is now treated as stream, which makes it impossible to place a paved trail entirely outside the buffer. The developer proposed locating the paved pedestrian route on top of a required 15-foot waterline easement that will already be cleared for construction, reducing additional vegetation removal and avoiding new disturbance within the tree retention area. Steepe asked the commission to “make a finding that placing the pedestrian path within the waterline easement meets both departments’ goals,” arguing it protects the buffer while providing the needed route.

City engineering staff said the written conditions already allow alternatives where meandering a trail through the buffer is infeasible, and that the final grading and construction drawings must show feasibility and minimize vegetation removal. “The intent is not that they put it right adjacent to a tree that a root would damage the trail long term,” Poulsbo engineer Josh Raines said, noting city staff expect the applicant to demonstrate the final alignment during the grading-permit review.

Second, the applicant disputed a city requirement for curb, gutter and sidewalk on the north–south segment of Knoll Road along the site’s east side. JTM’s team said Kitsap County records and the county surveyor identify the westerly right-of-way line of Knoll Road as the city limit and urban-growth-boundary line, which, the applicant said, would leave that roadway entirely in rural county jurisdiction where rural roadway standards typically do not require curb-and-gutter frontage improvements. The applicant asked the commission to remove or modify any condition requiring urban fringe improvements on that county segment.

Poulsbo staff said they had separately discussed the project with Kitsap County and that county staff previously supported curb, gutter and a pedestrian facility at this location; staff added that a curb and gutter transition would help create an urban context and slow traffic where county road segments abut future city development. Raines also described design options such as curb notches that would allow road runoff to reach the ditch and avoid a full buried collection system.

Residents raised several recurring concerns during public comment: a road stub that would end at the north property line adjacent to private backyards, loss of privacy, requests for a fence along the northern boundary, the potential for tree die-off near recently cleared adjoining frontage, traffic increases on neighboring streets, the location of school bus stops, and opportunities to salvage native understory plants prior to clearing.

Cliff Despo, whose property borders the proposal, asked the commission to reconsider the north road stub location and requested a fence between his property and the subdivision. “This placement would significantly affect my family’s privacy,” Despo said, asking the commission and hearing examiner to require alternatives. Other neighbors asked staff to share contacts for plant-rescue groups; several speakers described observed wildlife and expressed interest in minimizing disturbance and staggered clearing during nesting season.

Staff and the applicant said many details — final trail alignment, grading, tree-retention implementation, specific street cross sections and exact bus-stop placement — will be addressed in later phases: the hearing-examiner review, grading and clearing permits, and building-permit reviews. Berghof said the hearing examiner will hold a public hearing on June 12 at 10:30 a.m.; the hearing will be available virtually.

Planning commission action: a commissioner moved that the commission recommend approval of the Sandstone Ridge PRD and preliminary plat (planning file P-10-01-24-01) and authorize the chair to sign the findings. The motion carried; commissioners responded “Aye” and staff recorded that the recommendation passed. The project’s next procedural step is the hearing-examiner public hearing June 12, where the examiner makes the decision.

What remains unresolved: final alignment of the pedestrian connection through or adjacent to the critical area buffer, whether curb-and-gutter frontage improvements will be required on the north–south segment of Knoll Road (a county road), and specific mitigation or design changes to address neighbor privacy along the north boundary. Those matters, planners said, will be revisited in engineering and permitting steps and at the hearing examiner’s review.

The commission’s written recommendation, staff reports and exhibits (including engineering condition 35 and planning condition 18) are part of the project record; SEPA comment materials were included in staff report Exhibit F and the SEPA appeal period closed with no appeals filed the meeting day.