GROWTH MANAGEMENT AND ILLAHEE
2.1 THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT ACT
The Washington State Legislature adopted the Growth
Management Act (GMA) on July 1, 1990. This Act set specific standards for local
jurisdictionsÕ future planning efforts. Many jurisdictions needed to revise
their gradient scale of zoning designations, combining them into two distinct
classifications, rural and urban. Newly created rural lots were to be 5 acres
or greater in size and urban lots 5 dwelling units per acre or more in density.
The Act allowed for some lot sizes in between these two classifications.
Through the
development of a Comprehensive Plan, each jurisdiction would reconcile their
existing zoning patterns with the new urban/rural requirement. For many
jurisdictions, including Kitsap County, this reconciliation was extremely
difficult.
Figure 2.1
2.2 THE 1998 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
Over the course of the next ten years, Kitsap County
developed three separate Comprehensive Plans for consideration by the State.
The Growth Management Hearings Board validated the third Plan in 2000. This
Plan designated urban areas around Port Orchard, Bremerton, Silverdale, Poulsbo
and Kingston. Other areas with many urban characteristics (lot sizes and lack
of infrastructure) were designated rural (1 dwelling unit per 5 Acres). Two of
these areas included the communities of Suquamish, and Manchester. These areas
faced urban problems such as traffic issues and increased storm water runoff
but were nevertheless given a rural designation consistent with much larger
lots. This is the designation the Illahee Community would like to have had.
2.3 THE 1998 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AND THE
ILLAHEE COMMUNITY
During the considerations for the 1998 Comprehensive Plan,
the community of Illahee was included in the blanket urban designation given
for the area between Bremerton and Silverdale. Illahee is a small semi-rural historic community,
essentially defined as the area in and around Illahee Creek and Illahee State
Park and the surrounding shorelines.
The geological features of the stream and steep slopes, with much of the
land in its natural state, result in a more rural setting and the area until
that time was zoned semi-rural.
The community has no industry and only peripheral commercial areas
adjacent to major roadways. The
community has only one major roadway that runs though the community. The only internal commercial
establishment is a vacant community convenience store, which has been
unoccupied for a few years. There
are no schools and limited bus service.
Approximately 15 years ago two developments were established north of
the community and sewers lines were extended to cover those areas. The lot sizes and character of those
two developments conformed to the previous semi-rural zoning of the area and
Illahee remains semi-rural in spite of the higher urban densities assigned in
1998.
2.4 SUBSEQUENT TO THE 1998 COMPREHENSIVE
PLAN
Many changes were in progress in Illahee during the time
the 1998 Comprehensive Plan was being considered. The community had been plagued by storm water discharges for
40 years from upstream developments before mitigation requirements were
established. Additionally, salmon
raising efforts were failing due to the storm surges and older undersized
culverts. These problems were
addressed and partially resolved with the installation of a new bridge type
culvert under Illahee Road in 1999.
In 2001 the county purchased 352 acres of Department of
Natural Resources (DNR) land and in 2003 the County Commissioners established
the Illahee Preserve as a Kitsap County Heritage Park. The Preserve area is substantial
holding of natural resource areas in an otherwise urban setting, and represents
approximately 600 acres of public and private lands, most which is pristine
forest and watershed lands. This
major purchase and designation, along with Illahee State Park, further
contributed to the open space and semi-rural character of the area and Illahee
Community.
Additionally, the state and environmental groups have
recognized the natural resources of Illahee Creek and its watershed with grants
totaling nearly a million dollars.
The Port of Illahee is working with the Washington State Department of
Ecology to obtain grants to study how to control the storm water surges
resulting from previous developments.
Two salmon recovery grants have been approved and there is a renewed
sense in the community and surrounding area that this in an area whose natural
resources need to protected and preserved.
2.5 WHAT CLASSIFICATION SHOULD ILLAHEE BE
GIVEN?
The Growth Management Act (GMA) allows unique communities
to establish themselves. Illahee
seems to be an area that fell neither into the urban designation nor into the
larger acreage rural category. It
had been zoned and built out as semi-rural with limited service
infrastructure.
After careful consideration the Illahee Community feels it
should fall into a more rural classification rather than an urban
classification based on the open space features, the semi-rural character of
the area, and the previous semi-rural zoning designation. The classification that best seemed to
fit the Illahee Community is a ÒLimited Area of More Intensive Rural
DevelopmentÓ or LAMIRD, which was approved subsequent to the earlier
classification determinations.
However, because the area between Bremerton and Silverdale
has already established as an Urban Growth Area (UGA), we have been advised
that the LAMRID designation cannot be used. Therefore Illahee is requesting it be given a unique
community status consistent with GMA guidelines. In the absence of known criteria to define our unique
community we are using the basic criteria designed for designating an area as
an LAMIRD.
2.6 UNIQUE COMMUNITIES AND THEIR BOUNDARIES
Establishing Illahee Community Boundaries
In order to
determine IllaheeÕs Community Boundary, guidance was taken from the GMA, the
Office of Community Development and the Kitsap County Comprehensive Plan. Significant elements from these sources
were utilized to develop general guidelines for determining a Community
boundary. These elements were:
- Identify any logical
governmental or public jurisdictions. This item is satisfied by utilizing the Port of
IllaheeÕs boundary, with two logical extensions.
- Identify the existing public
services, i.e., sewer and water.
See Chapter 6.
- Address:
(A) The need to preserve and enhance the
character of existing natural neighborhoods and communities,
(B) Physical boundaries such as bodies
of water, streets and highways, and land forms and contours,
(C) The prevention of abnormally
irregular boundaries, and
- Identify critical areas (i.e.,
wetlands, areas of geological concern, frequently flooded areas, fish and
wildlife conservation areas, critical aquifer recharge areas or wellhead
protection zones and resource lands). See Chapter 4.
The
Illahee Community Boundary
The Illahee CitizenÕs Advisory Committee applied these
criteria and established several Illahee boundary maps. The basic boundary map agreed upon is
shown as Figure 2.1. This map
notes the Illahee Community Border as the Port of Illahee boundary lines, with
two logical extensions. The first
extension was to establish the southern most border to be consistent with a
major street rather than meander through lot lines. It merely shifted the border several hundred feet to the
south to 30th Avenue.
The second boundary shift was to take in the south fork of
Illahee Creek. This required
shifting the western border from an extension of Trenton Avenue, to a Perry
Avenue extension. This was a
logical extension that takes into account the natural lay of the land and at
the same time more closely corresponds to the established roadways in the area.
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