Lopez gets its own planning review committee
Published 1:35 pm Monday, March 24, 2014
Lopez Village and Eastsound now have another thing in common, a planning review committee.
At a regular Tuesday meeting at the community center on Lopez Island, March 18, the San Juan County Council formally abolished the prior ad-hoc village planning committee and established a full-scale seven-member planning review committee, much like the seven-member Eastsound Planning Review Committee on Orcas Island.
The ad-hoc committee was formed in 2009 to begin the planning process for Lopez Village, the island’s commercial center, but according to the Village Resiliency Project (lopezvillageresilencyproject.wordpress.com) report, planning for Lopez Village has been ongoing since the 1970s.
The new Lopez Planning Review Committee is now accepting membership applications; Councilman Jamie Stephens expects the committee will be formed in three weeks and will be working for 12 to 18 months to produce a sub-area plan. That plan will be reviewed and amended by the county planning department before being added to the county comprehensive plan and becoming part of the building code.
Like its sister planning committee in Eastsound, the Lopez panel will have a broad charter. They will consider matters such as lighting, landscaping, parking, bicycle and pedestrian access, building standards, wireless communication facilities, stormwater management and density, views and aesthetics.
The Eastsound sub-area plan already includes many of the same considerations. The Eastsound Planning Review Committee is currently considering amendments to village development rules, like how much retail extension will be permitted in the airport area and what kind of street food kiosks and drive through coffee establishments will be permitted.
Having briefly discussed Growler jet noise at its Monday meeting in Friday Harbor, the subject was not on the agenda for Lopez Island – until a Navy Growler roared nearby during the meeting, temporarily silencing the meeting until Stephens quipped, “That’s what a jet sounds like when it goes over Lopez Island.”
Stephens noted that he is arranging for a site visit for concerned Lopezians to NAS Whidbey in the coming weeks, after which the council may invite NAS Whidbey leadership to a town hall or council meeting at a future date.
Any Lopezian interested in serving on the Lopez P.R.C. should submit an application, which can be found at sanjuanco.com/council/CommitteeVacancies.aspx.
