Oak Harbor Planning Commission urges council to ratify countywide planning policy changes, eyes 80-acre annexation

The Oak Harbor Planning Commission on Feb. 10 recommended that City Council ratify proposed amendments to Island County's countywide planning policies, a set of changes staff says will reduce county-assigned growth targets and clarify which housing units within the urban growth area (UGA) are the county's responsibility.

Kat Mac, principal/senior planner for the planning department, told commissioners the state's new Housing-for-All Planning (HAP) tool requires jurisdictions to plan for housing by income bands and that the county's recent amendments reflect a desire to reduce its aggregate population allocation while the city evaluates possible land-use and annexation responses. "Based on the methodology and our current regulations, the city has an approximate capacity for about 2,474 units," Mac said, adding that consultant land-use options could raise capacity to roughly 3,735 units.

Staff said the county and city are discussing an interjurisdictional agreement to annex about 80 acres of underdeveloped land along the south side of Oak Harbor near Highway 20 and Southwest 24th so the city can plan higher densities there. "We're looking at annexing about 80 acres of property within the UGA into the city so that we can start planning for that," Mac said.

Commissioners focused questions on the mechanics and consequences of the CPP changes: whether the edits shift UGA counts from the municipality to the county, how the county calculated annexation-unit numbers, whether the reduced county allocation accounts for the proposed annexation, and what notice property owners would receive. Councilmember Stuckey said the council had seen the map and that he did not recall strong objections from council to the annexation concept, but he urged staff to ensure property-owner outreach.

Mac said the county's buildable-lands analysis assigns an initial unit count to underdeveloped UGA parcels under county zoning; when a parcel is annexed the city will re-examine zoning and likely find additional capacity during its comprehensive-plan (comp plan) process. She added the county's reduction in overall housing-unit allocations for Island County does not prevent Oak Harbor from completing a comp plan for city limits; it mainly affects how the UGA and county-assigned portions are reconciled.

The commission voted to "recommend that City Council ratify the proposed amendments" to the countywide planning policies. The motion was moved by a commissioner who said the smaller numbers were preferable to the prior, larger allocations and was seconded; the motion passed on a voice vote.

Staff also outlined the comp-plan schedule and the environmental-review steps: commission members were told the city will issue a determination of significance and begin an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) scoping period this spring. The EIS will include a no-action alternative, a preferred alternative that sketches where the city would locate most growth, and a higher-growth alternative with additional density tools; maps, overlay zones and possible rezones will be presented during EIS scoping.

Commissioners raised policy concerns the staff said would be considered as the draft EIS and policy language are developed: how to sequence overlay zones and form-based-code aspirations; specifying the purpose and prioritization of preserving open space for climate-resilience, noise-abatement or habitat protection; and how planning commission recommendations should be documented for council consideration. Staff said written comments from the commission would be forwarded to consultants and incorporated into draft policies.

The commission's recommendation will be forwarded to City Council for consideration ahead of the county's final adoption schedule and related joint meetings with Island County.