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Poulsbo hearing examiner considers Westry Village unit-lot subdivision; staff and engineering back approval
Summary
City staff told the hearing examiner the Westry Village unit-lot subdivision aligns with a 2022 site plan and recommended approval; engineering said utilities meet standards though individual water meters will be required, and the applicant accepted conditions. No public comments were offered at the hearing.
Gary McLean, the hearing examiner for the City of Poulsbo, opened an open-record public hearing at 10:00 on a proposed subdivision known as Westry Village and said the record would include staff reports, planning commission minutes and exhibits already filed.
Edie Berghoff, lead presenter for the City of Poulsbo Planning & Economic Development Department, told the examiner the property lies in the Mojave master plan area with residential-medium zoning and that an approved site-plan review from 2022 exists for the same parcel. "The unit lot subdivision itself, the lines are exactly matching up with what the site plan was," Berghoff said, and she identified the staff report and supporting documents on the exhibit list (exhibits 1–15, with new exhibits to begin at 16). She said existing SEPA environmental documents were adopted for this application and that the Planning Commission recommended approval without modification.
From an engineering perspective, Michael Bateman of the City of Poulsbo Engineering Department said the approved project "met all of our standards" and that the main operational change produced by unit-lot ownership is the need for separate utility accounts. "Individual ownership brings a need for individual water meters and individual utility accounts," Bateman said, noting that some city code guidance (for example on garbage service) has not yet been fully updated for unit-lot subdivisions and that the project will remain with the proposed residential dumpster while engineering made minor edits to conditions of approval.
Applicant representative James Laughlin described earlier iterations of the proposal — originally conceived as rentals or apartments, later revised to allow sale of individual units — and said the unit-lot option improves financing options for buyers. "It makes a future owner more possible to get financing," Laughlin said, and he confirmed he had received and accepted the staff report and recommended conditions without change.
Hearing Examiner McLean opened the floor for public comment; staff monitoring the online platform and the hearing room reported no speakers came forward. McLean closed the public portion of the hearing, took the matter under advisement and said he would issue a written decision based on the record. "I'll do my best to get it by year end, but it may be the January 1," he said, and he noted the decision will include instructions for appeal.
