OAK HARBOR: City to do ‘everything we possibly can’ to accommodate growth predictions

Sam Fletcher reports from the Oak Harbor City Council’s workshop of Wed., Aug. 28, 2024 for the Whidbey News-Times.

Kimley-Horn, Oak Harbor’s engineering consultants, has provided city officials with options for the housing element of the comprehensive plan update due at the end of next year.

The comprehensive plan, required under the Growth Management Act, is the county’s centerpiece, long-range planning document and contains policies, visions and goals for the next 20 years. One of the first steps in updating the document was to decide where population growth should go. Under the Growth Management Act, most of the population growth is supposed to be directed into municipal areas with appropriate infrastructure.

The state predicts the county’s population will grow from the current 87,000 people to nearly 103,000 in 20 years. The bulk of the housing for population increases is planned for urban areas, which in Island County largely means Oak Harbor.

They Said It

Councilmember Jim Woessner has been a proponent of [a form-based code system, where developments must adhere to a specific urban form with less focus on land use like the current zoning system] for a while, he said, as there are other factors influencing property value than density.

Areas able to be rezoned for higher density housing marked by Kimley-Horn are mostly downtown, next to parks and the shorefront, so ensuring affordability will be difficult, he said. Re-developing properties enhances the value as well.

Councilmember Eric Marshall agreed with Woessner, wanting to work every angle as a city before adjusting the urban growth area.

“We have to show that we are doing everything we possibly can to reach that number,” he said.