A few weeks ago the Sounder reported on a meeting called by Councilman Hughes to describe pending changes to the Eastsound Subarea Plan. Missing from the Sounder report was any description of the proposed rezoning of the Seaview/Mt. View neighborhood just west of the airport.

This neighborhood of some 40 properties is planned, by the Planning Department, to be rezoned from Village Residential (12 units/acre) to Eastsound Residential (2 units/acre). Whatever the merits of the changes, the residents and property owners have not yet been notified of the impending changes to their properties.

Public notification and involvement is a cornerstone of Growth Management and indeed good planning practice. Nowhere in State or County regulation is local government constrained from informing citizens of proposed or pending changes to the land use regulations. Everywhere in planning theory and practice, public information, notification and engagement is always of paramount importance; in fact at RCW 36.70B110, it is the law.

In this case, timely notification has not been done. No notice in the mail, no notices posted in the neighborhood, no visible or coherent notice in the local news media alerting people that their property values are being tinkered with.

What exactly is the affected neighborhood? Some 40 odd parcels west of the airport and:

The east side of Blanchard Street to the Opal community;

Both sides of Mt. View;

Both sides of Seaview Street to Aviator Drive

The issues involved in the pending rezoning are significant and deserve discussion. Why the change? How did the present zoning occur? What will be the affect of the change? What are the alternatives? The sooner these questions are explained and discussed with the affected community the better.

John M. Campbell

Orcas Island