HomeMy WebLinkAbout101RECPNVED
FEB o g ny{Planning Commission
Pleasant Harbor Master Planned Resort
December ?,20t4
Public Comments - transcribed verbatim
Commission ond opplicont responses summorized in itolics
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Chair Coker opened the comment period
George Sickel (?), Brinnon, WA: First of all there's lots of documents that you've talked about here, is
there any plan for the documents to be available here in Brinnon for the residents to review? I
recognize it's on the internet, not everybody has internet access. And second - it's really hard to read
these documents on the internet as opposed to a paper copy.
Brinnon fire hall hos a complete copy.
Mike Weld, Jupiter road, Brinnon, WA: How many acres does this whole thing encompass, and how
many private land owners are going to be evacuated off their land to make this thing up?
256 ocres. No residents displaced.
Miriam Burdock, Brinnon: Any provisions or plans for saltwater intrusion in the aquifer?
lndecipherable.
Water quolity testing is in ploce. Advonced warning if any soltwoter intrusion. lf wells are domaged, PH
will make provisions to repair, provided proof con be mode that PH impocted their well.
Rob Mitchell, Brinnon: I have here...this is the agreement that Statesman has proposed, and this states
that the well has to be...(indecipherable)...DOE has figured that ....(indecipherable)...are, the wellowner
provides conclusive evidence that over a statistically relevant period of time, chloride levels have
increased. (C) Pleasant Harbor has the right to request additional evidence from the residents, showing
that Pleasant Harbor...(indecipherable)...is the cause of the increase of the chlorides. The burden of
proof is on the homeowner, and if PH replaces the water, it is at Pleasant Harbor's cost to the
homeowner and then the homeowner has to pay for use, This is in direct conflict with what the DOE
conditions are for the water rights. ln addition, the pump test that was done was aborted after 24 hours
for the well that's existing. A second well was never drilled and second pump test was never completed.
So Statesman doesn't really know, does not have empirical proof that water exists or whether they're
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going to affect salt-water intrusion on surrounding wells. Which is going to occur on the edges of the
lenticular formulation. That's in the draft SEIS.
I ran the pump test, and thot's stondard operating procedure, to stop the pump test ofter 24 hours.
Rob Mitchell, Brinnon: No. ln the SEIS, it states the pump test failed because the generator failed, so
which is it?
Eock ond forth conversotion between unknown commenters.
Stoff suggested putting these comments and questions into written form so that they con be coptured
ond responded to.
Janice Richards, Harbor House, Brinnon: The gentleman said that there's no private property that's
impacted by the new plan, and it looked to us like there's still a road going through our place and some
other things going on, so we don't understand the change, or if we'll be impacted or not.
No one is going to be "displaced." The Richards home will remoin and nothing chonges. A "shuttle rood"
will not impoct the Richord's home.
Janice Richards, Harbor House, Brinnon: So you can change a legal document that says that it's
pedestrian access only, to a shuttle or whatever access?
Not awore of any legal document stoting that it's a pedestrion only occess.
Janice Richards, Harbor House, Brinnon: Check with the Health Department. lt was an exchange for
letting us put our septic system up on lot 2, we granted a pedestrian access.
Victoria Marshall, Brinnon: We're waterfront property owners, and we look right at Black Point. Very
supportiveofthisproject. lhavelookedattheSElS,haven'tmadeitthoughlthink269pagesofit,but
certainly through the executive summary and through the table, comparing the options. I think what
we're talking about here is one of two options. One is option 2, or do nothing. I guess the comment I
would like to make is that sometimes, the greatest degradation to the environment is poverty, And I
have witnessed, while certainly people have lots of great concerns, that l'm concerned about the "do
nothing" aspect, and leaving this undeveloped and then having piecemeal septics put in, more wells
drilled. I mean something's going to happen to this property. I was very very impressed with the SEIS. I
think it's well done. Well researched. I would like to add that my entire career was in resort marketing
on a national basis. l've been in many meetings like this with a lot of communities small and large
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grappling with a lot of issues. I think that the pace that this is going at, the careful work that's going in
to it is impressive, and it's going to be a wonderful addition to the community.
Joe Baisch, Brinnon: l've lived here for 23 years. I got here right as the federal forest policy affected the
timber county of Jefferson very adversely. South County lost 40 family wage jobs and 4 timber
companies went out of business overnight. About that time the county opted in to the GMA process.
Now the Growth Management Act process was designed for that l-5 corridor section of real estate and
applied dense urban planning standards to dense urban neighborhoods. And when we did this to
Jefferson County, we put dense urban planning standards to building standards and code on rural
residential prop - most of - rural residential zoned land, most of which applies to Jefferson County. And
it's hurt our building trades and it's hurt people who want to split their property or develop their
property. I know a lot of families that wanted to divide their property up into sections, and now it takes
an attorney and ten to twenty thousand dollars to do it. Jefferson County, in the last 20 years that l've
been here has been a leader in unemployment in Western Washington. lt's been consistently above 8%.
When I moved here, we had 133 kids in Brinnon School, we started last year with 24. There's been an
exodus of school aged children and school aged children out of Jefferson County because there's no
work here. 87% of my kids in Brinnon School today qualify for free and reduced lunch. Which means
they live in poverty. Over 50% of the school aged children in Jefferson County qualify for free and
reduced lunch. They live in poverty. We've neglected economic development in this county. We need
projects like this. ...(indecipherable)...work with WSU and Community Development, was a quote by
John Knight of Northwestern University who spent an academic career studying why communities thrive
and why they fail: "Communities that thrive focus and build on local assets; Communities that fail focus
on...put their energy into their needs." And that is alive and well here. We need to thrive, and in order
to do that we need to build local assets. This project is an asset. lt's taking a piece of real estate and
making it an asset with Jefferson County. As many of you know, I ran for County Commissioner last fall
and got an hour update on the dire situation the county is in terms of revenue. lt's going to put more
and more pressure on property owners. We need this kind of development, that's well thought out,
that's got global impacts in terms of infrastructure in order to have a future here. So I urge you to
seriously consider moving this project forward. Thank you.
John Adams, Brinnon: Can you speak for a moment on how the wastewater flow is going to work in the
months of April when you're not necessarily hydrating the golf course, yet you're still April through June
receiving lots of rainfall.
It's going to pond. And then infiltrate bock into oquifer. Prevented from dispersing into the Hood Conol.
Don (indecipherable - Scangee?), Brinnon: When this politic completed thing. How much impact
would do to the home-owner in the tax consequences? Would it increase? How much would increase
my tax?
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Thot's a questions for the assessor.
Don (indecipherable - Scangee?), Brinnon: But by doing this, it would increase the value of my
property, correct?
lndirectly, but thot's a question for the ossessor
Jason Willouby (?), Brinnon: Joe Baish's question about employing people in the community. We just
started this wastewater treatment facility here in the community, right? You guys probably know about
it, Nobody here's involved in that. So if everybody's here worried about employment, why isn't all
these locally people who are employed up there - we never got the Voice and the-or-l think - employed
the paper. lf anybody knows anything about it, please back me up here, but it was never announced in
our paper here in our community but it was in Clallam, Mason, so none of our resources here was able
to even hear, because we didn't know about it. I mean, so if everybody's worried about these jobs and
this, why in the frick aren't we up there working on this wastewater treatment facility for the county of
Brinnon? Why are we worried about this resort?...(indecipherable)...it boils my blood, because I need a
job and there aren't jobs up here. I got injured in a logging accident two years ago and I haven't been
able to work, but man, if everybody's worrying about jobs and I don't think anybody up here's able to.
Or nobody's giving us the opportunity to....why don't these companies require to hire locally? There's
many guys out there with a shovel and a rake who want to work, A lot of people don't have internet
access and smart phones, they check for notices and information at the post office.
ln the onalysis, there may be as many os 253 jobs creoted during ond after construction of the resort.
Mike Weld: Two years ago, my wife and I went to a meeting and Garth Mann was here, and he filled
this little sketchy thing up here that's on the table for us to look at of what he had planned out, and we
asked him where are you going to get the people to work this, and he said "well, l'm going to bring most
of them in from China, because Chinese people work better than the American people do, and according
quality work. So if he's going to do bring in a lot of people from out of state, what good's it going to do
us to apply to work for them when he's going to have other people from other countries do it?
BOCC condition in the Development Agreement, regording requiring advertising locolly, recruiting locally,
give preference to locol opplicants, providing they are qualified.
Stew Engle (?), Brinnon: I think the thing to remember is, you don't get the job if we don't get the thing
built to begin with. Jobs are almost secondary to this thing. We have to develop it, and then get the tax
base, and the jobs a lot of them, I agree with you, aren't living wage jobs. But neither are McDonalds.
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They're stepping stone jobs. lf one doesn't do it, then you work two. A lot of people in this community
work more than one job. But I think the most important thing to remember is that the thing has to be
built first.
Nicole Black, Brinnon: The reference to the jobs, that actually came up in the 2007 meeting. That was
one of the big topics and they all came forward in the EIS and were like - Hey we want to make sure we
have...cause I was like, I know contractors...and want to make sure they take locals, The next thing I
wanted to do was go back to something that Joe said about local assets. And he made a quick little
assumption there that the resort is an asset. And it's actually sitting on our asset. And our people are a
local asset, and our infrastructure is a local asset. So before we just assume that this is a local asset, I
want to consider what it's going to take from and as we move forward, which I am pro, but I want to
move forward in a very cautious way. I asked a question about the water because if we have to balance
out equities between green grass, and water up the river, I hope that the MPR would say communicate,
integrate - not just build and pulltheir selves away from the community, that's not the way to do it, and
I hope the Planning Commission really takes the time to look at all of the questions. These are good
people, but they want to feel like they're being heard and want to know that you guys are listening, and
this gets done correctly.
Richard Whitcom, Brinnon/County lines: I might go play golf it's built, l'll go to the restaurant, I go to
the marina once a year, but one thing that's going to impact all of us, whether you're pro or con, nobody
talksaboutit,isthehighway. Andit'sjustahighway,butit'sreallyalifeline. Gobacktobeforethe
bridge was built - the bridge sank in '80, and everybody comes up and down, they repair it, and
everybody comes up and down. Think of Hoodsport, think of the light they're going to have to put down
there. lt's just a way of life that's going to disappear, and that's sad, because the road really, they can't
handle all this new traffic. There's no problem there, because it's a really under-utilized road but
wouldn't it be more likely a life line - so you make this decision to the Council, to the Commissioners, l'd
put some weight on it. Because it's going to be a future thing that might be cursed when the road's to
capacity and there's only one road. lt is - you know what's going to happen, I was 36 years over in King
County and l've seen a lot of us come and go, and l'm pretty worried this is going to happen. But how
do you - it's just such a big deal - there's twice as much build out, so the road's going to have twice as
much traffic. lt's really going to impact everybody, So look at that point, and when the bridge goes out,
which it will again, we can use one road. That's all I can say.
Yes, WSDOT has been involved all olong. They were involved in scoping ot intersections, etc., looking at
sofety, levels of service, shuttle transportation, ond trip generotion.
Un-named commenter: Regarding the traffic study. The original level of service evidence was from the
year 2000. The actual auto count was from the year 2006. During the entire traffic study, for some
reason, none of the other segments of roadway accidents and incidents were included. Only accidents
and incidents at intersections were included. Out of the 4100 car trips predicted per day, 65 percent are
going to go up and over Mount Walker, that's over 2600 cars a day over Mount Walker Pass. Mount
Walker Pass is one of our more notorious roll-over points, including our own Sheriff s department. 1200
cars will be traveling south, and the first serious corner is 1/10th of a mile South of Black Point Road.
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Many roll-overs, in fact we have a chip truck that disintegrated there last year. We had a head on
fatality collision between an SUV and an oil tanker trunk right in front of Canal Tracts. Further South, I
believe it's six miles, is McDaniel Cove. Everybody who lives around here knows how bad that is, None
of those places were ever considered in this traffic study. Why? The majority of serious accidents do
not occur at intersections, Everyone who's here, knows that.
Weren't required to look ot those incidents, due to the low count of those occidents.
Don Haren (?), Brinnon: My thing was, or understanding, was that this is a destination resort, more so
than something that's going to have people here continuously. So, winter-time, very low traffic. What's
the main mode of transportation for people coming here?
Both destination, ond some stoys. Automobile is moin mode of transportotion. There will be o von from
the oirport. And a von for tours.
Un-named commenter: lguess I have a question about build-out, timing of build-out
and...indecipherable...l live in Cape George, I have a (indecipherable) in Port Ludlow, and there's been so
many vacancies in both those areas. There's the big hotel out there that is completely vacant. And l'm
wondering where are the people going to come from? And if they don't come at some anticipated level,
you know, is there is this capitalized enough that the County isn't going to get left with some bag for
maintaining roads or other infrastructure? lt just seems very very ambitious to me.
Un-named commenter: I have another point regarding the traffic. The shuttle bus that's proposed and
the tour van that's proposed in your traffic study it's assumed that you're going to have 100% capacity,
which was supposed to take up to 260 car trips a day off of the 4L00. Even in your study in the SEIS, you
admit that that's probably not going to happen. And I say, human nature, most likely will not happen.
Another point that I have to make is that the Duckabush Rd itself is going to get 2% of lhe car trips,
which is say 120 cars a day. Even if that's a 10 hour period, that's 12 cars an hour going up the
Duckabush, which, half of the Duckabush, according to you is 11foot wide lane widths, which it's not.
It's 8 foot and then it goes into the Duckabush extension, which is forest service road. And then it goes
to the Duckabush trail which can park approximately 30 cars for the M--- Falls trail, which has room for
about 8. Where are those 120 cars going?
One of the priorities in terms of troffic, is recreation, The ossumption is that those cors will be recreoting.
Un-named commenter, cont: on top of that, the forest service has just done a study, and their usage of
trailheads is up 25%. So we are experiencing a huge increase of car traffic, up my road in particular, and
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where are all these people going to go? And what are they going to do? There is no fishing access past
where I live, and I don't know what they're going to do. lt's going to be gridlock in the woods.
Un-named commenter: The gentleman next to me here, you have an amazing capacity for the facts.
It's just awesome. I wish I had that. I guess, what I have to say is more anecdotal. We have - I spent 20
years living in the Sun Valley, ldaho, area. We also have a second home in Sun Peaks area in BC. And
our home in the Sun Peaks area is kind of like the Duckabush. We didn't buy in the resort village, we
bought - it's off a country road,7 kilometers away. I can tell you that we don't get anything. The
impact - I don't have numbers - but we don't have a whole bunch of people driving down our road.
Un-named commenter: I live on the Duckabush and there is more traffic on the road, and they speed
on the road, and they kill livestock, they kill dogs, hit kids. We've had problems on the Duckabush. This
needs to be considered.
Un-named commenter: I would submit, though, that the type of people that resorts attract are going to
be more interested in golf, and more interested in those types of activities. And I hear you, I understand
that you have concerns.
Un-named commenter: Do you live on the Duckabush?
Un-named commenter: No. I ride my bike on the Duckabush allthe time. So riding the bike up the
Duckabush, there's no lanes. Yes in the summer time, it's really busy, and I get that. But, you know, I
don't know that that's a reason to not let something - or to oppose something like this. We can all think
of reasons not to have things changes, but there's also, there are really a lot of positive things that can
come out of this.
Un-named commenter: Ma'am, ljust want to address something you just said. lt's not about not
wanting change or not wanting this to happen, it's about recognizing the problems before they happen,
having a little bit of fore-thought and saying let's plan this so that we consider these kinds of problems,
and build the infrastructure needed.
John Dowd, Brinnon: After working 27 years for the Jefferson County road department, I can tell you
there's no forcing Jefferson County to maintain portions of the Duckabush road that's only 8 feet wide in
either lane. Only if there's a broken piece of blacktop.
George Sickel: Let's turn more to the positive. Why should we be approving this? lt will double the tax
base in Brinnon. More than. I mean conservatively. Which means more taxes for the schools, for the
fire department. They're proposing a medical facility so we don't have to travel to Shelton, to Port
Townsend, to Silverdale to get medical services. There'll be a sales tax increase. The County is already
hurting. They're spending more money than they have coming in, so they need to increase the tax base
in one form or another. This'll increase the sales tax base, the motel tax and then also look at the spin-
off businesses that will occur. Nicole will be able to have more people riding her horses. There'll be a
shuttle service to be able to go to the casino - north or south. There'll be hiking opportunities - guided
hikes. That's what those people would be doing, going up the Duckabush. There'll be people here to go
diving, and that'll hopefully Don Coleman's going to be able to add additional boats. There'll be fishing
opportunities. There's so many good things that can come of this, and we have struggled now for 8
years. lt's going to be two more years at a conservative estimate when they're going to be able to break
ground here, so believe it or not it's going to be 2020 before we even see this tax coming in. So, what
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do we want to do, do we want to put it off for another 5 years? Or do we want to have Garth pull his
money out and subdivide that area into one acre, two acre or 5 acre tracts and have all these additional
wells and septic systems? So think about those things, and don't totally look at all the negatives coming
out, but look at the positive things that this can do for our community, for all of South County, and for
all of Jefferson County. Thank you.
Un-named commenter: ln return to Mr. Shickel's comment, I don't dive, I don't golf, I don't ride horses
and I don't do all the things that you described will happen to our taxes, but our taxes will increase and I
don't know about you but I live on a very fixed income, because l'm retired. I can't really afford a lot of
tax increase.
Phil Dunster, Brinnon: My wife and I moved here about 7 years ago. We're fortunate - more fortunate
than most - because when we moved here, we brought our jobs with us. We telecommute. We work
for a company that's on the other side of the water. One of the things that makes me sick, is when I
kind of needle out of people here that have to commute to places like Port Townsend or Shelton for
their jobs, the price of fuel is high, negates and cuts off their income level because they're traveling and
they've got all these extra expenses - they've got more maintenance to do on their cars. For me to
work out of my house is a real benefit for me. What I see here is that yes, there's jobs being created
here, but a lot of them being created may not be at the highest levels, but the ability to have a localjob,
to be able to put your local kids who are without having to worry about what am I going to do this
summer. George mentioned the tax base - the County's struggling. We've got budget cuts, revenue
shortfalls. I think it's time that we all realized that the resorts going to bring all this revenue, doubling
the tax base. This is a key thing for us. Our residents are over-taxed. Property owners - my property
taxes keep going up. Oddly enough, because of the restrictions on waterfront properties, waterfront
properties are going down, so the County's balancing it by increasing taxes off of waterfront properties.
l'm not pleased about it and l'm sure nobody in this room that owns property is pleased about it. And
really, what better way to pay your bills than from people bringing in money from out of the area? You
know, that makes sense. We've going to increase our sales tax revenue from people that are coming
here from out of County. Jefferson County's biggest exports are dollars. When you want to go shop,
there's - a resident said to me the other day: You know, a good example of why people go to shop in
Clallam County or Mason County or Kitsap County - you can't even buy underwear in this County. lt's a
basicnecessity,andlthoughtitwasfunnywhenitwassaidtome,butreally,it'sareality. lt'soneofthe
things I read online this week: They compared the resort to the dam on the Elwha River. And I thought
that was kind of funny, because really, they were talking about the environmental impact and the dam
and how it took a hundred years to correct it. Well, a lot more is known about the environment today
and how to correct it, than there was in 1910. The EIS they've demonstrated that this is a low-impact
development. This isn't something that should be the way of the future, it should be the way of today. I
think it's time that we bring a little prosperity back to our county.
Don Skangee (?): I travel to Port Ludlow over the years. l've been living here for 7 years. I have heard a
lot of people from Ludlow share the same comments, the same concerns as here today. But look at Port
Ludlow today, compared to what we could become like Port Ludlow. They're more prosperous, they
have businesses, bring in a lot more revenue. And so yes, I think that at the beginning it may be a little
painful, because of inconvenience and this and that. But that is progress. I would love to live where I
am now and don't have any changes - no traffic so forth - but this place is dying, it truly is, I have a
friend who looked for 3 years to find a job. He used to live on Duckabush. Couldn't find a job anywhere,
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had to move away, almost lost his house. I think a lot of time we're so concerned about our individual
comfort - I can understand that - but this place is dying. We don't have anything to bring in and infuse
the community. Have the opportunity to work - to go to school - better teachers. I think we're fooling
ourselves. Nothing will remain the same forever. lf progress don't come today, it will come tomorrow.
Un-named commenter: I have two points. Progress is inevitable, it's a question of how much the
surrounding infrastructure can absorb it. The problem with a development of this scale is that this
infrastructure's going to get slammed. lt's going to have a very hard time absorbing all these impacts.
Addressing George Sickel's comment about taxes. This project which was originally supposed to be 4-7
years, and now it's 4-10 years, depending on how the economy goes, supposed to be built in phases.
We could be seeing a 10 year period of just slowly kind of trying to get to the finished phased. lt's only
after full build-out that the collection of taxes will have a positive effect. There will be a certain amount
of revenue from the building phase, but a lot other negative effects. After the taxes are collected, 6.5
goes to the State, 2.5 goes back to Port Townsend to be distributed as the County seat sees fit. lt
doesn't mean that any of that money is going to be used to take care of the infrastructure in Brinnon or
the surrounding areas. The money that goes to the State goes to an open pool. And so, yes, in theory,
this revenue is going to be a great boon to the County. But is it going to be a boon to the people who
have to withstand the increased traffic, and not being able to get to the doctor if any accidents on 10L,
and the risk of losing their wells on Black Point. ls that tax money going to help those people?
Un-named commenter: You plan on gradually building out to up to 890 units. What if you build 400
units and they're not selling. Do you stop there? Or will you build out fully?
The EIS said thot build-out will occur ot morket demond.
Chair asked for written comments, and closed the public comment period
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