Kingston Citizens’ Advisory Council notes

(The notes below were culled from minutes of the KCAC meeting April 2, taken by Secretary Nancy Tietje. KCAC meets at 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month in the Kingston Community Center. The next meeting will be May 7. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend.)

The Kingston Open House March 20 was reported as a big success at the Kingston Citizens’ Advisory Council meeting April 2. Over 250 people attended the open house. The council discussed whether next year’s event should continue at Kingston Middle School or be moved to a larger venue. There were an additional 10 exhibitors over 2007.

The presentation for the evening’s meeting was a report by a workgroup that met March 11 to review land use aspects of the Kingston Sub-Area Plan.

KCAC member Alex Thomsen provided the council with notes from the meeting, which included discussion of new growth, guidelines, non-motorized travel, new jobs and related land uses and wildlife corridors. Council member Walt Elliott requested that the re-routing of Highway 104 be worked into the Sub-Area Goals as much as possible. There was strong support for this.

The Growth Management Act (GMA) focuses on “industrial areas” within the Urban Grown Area (UGA), but it depends on the community. An exchange occurred about “industry” in the greater Kingston area. KCAC co-chair Denise Lietz suggested that perhaps the focus should be to create new jobs.

There was discussion about revisiting goals on a “macro” level at future KCAC meetings. There are tax incentives for local set-asides and viewing areas for wildlife, according to council member Naomi Maasberg. There is opportunity to improve stormwater runoff in areas of Kingston that were created prior to current standards.

Certain issues like the highway, stormwater and other topics are recurring across the various workgroup meetings. Elliott mentioned that Apple Tree Cove does not allow “flushing” of contaminants out into Puget Sound. The marina may contribute to this situation and it could be looked at in the future.

The final Kingston Sub-Area Plan workgroup met April 9 to discuss: ways to improve and encourage economic development opportunities and downtown revitalization; improving port facilities and waterfront; and transportation.

“Kingston’s Economic Development,” the results of this workshop, will be presented at the KCAC meeting at 7 p.m. May 7 in the Kingston Community Center. For more information, contact KCAC co-chair Greg Platz at (360) 509-3181.

County report

Peter Sullivan of Kitsap County Department of Community Development who represents the county on KCAC, gave suggestions on how the council may proceed once the workgroup efforts are wrapped up. Co-chair Lietz said the June KCAC meeting will focus on creating the prioritized list of actionable items for the county; subcommittee reports will be postponed to the next meeting.

Sullivan suggested a possible approach for presenting the findings to the public, and referred to an example from Manchester, which he’ll bring with him to the May meeting. Sullivan is envisioning an update to the county comprehensive plan and will look into this. KCAC needs to find out what the legal requirements are for updating the county plan.

Another common theme arising from the workgroups is the revitalization of Kingston’s downtown. The county intends to take the workgroup priorities along with the Village Green project and move forward in improving downtown Kingston.

There was more discussion about what downtown Kingston encompasses. There will be a county transportation planner at the next workgroup meeting. It was agreed that all the material discussed in the workgroups should be summarized and distributed to the council prior to the June meeting.

Contact Peter Sullivan at (360) 337-4579, psulliva@co.kitsap.wa.us.

Finally, in new business, KCAC member Betsy Cooper reported on the Wastewater Task Force, which the county created to identify what wastewater infrastructure is needed for various UGAs and what the costs will be. Work will occur to identify funding. A workgroup came to Kingston the end of March to evaluate the area.

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