In response to the article “Mill lease extended six months” (Leader, Feb. 12, 2020):
I hardly know where to begin when I read this article, which should read “Big Quilcene and Little Quilcene River reservoirs usurping water rights without any consideration to the Quilcene community.”
The City of Port Townsend believes they have found a new revenue source for their ever-growing appetite for money and power to grow the government of Port Townsend. Their needs are great but they refuse to look at policies and regulations that stifle growth and make businesses reluctant to consider it as a viable place to make a business work.
In addition to this the county commissioners should consider the possibility of how to use these reservoirs to help improve the community of Quilcene. We have ever-growing punitive regulatory efforts from the Community Development Office that make businesses opening or expanding in our community next to impossible.
It is close to criminal how this regulatory oversight has so micromanaged any building or change in business use in Quilcene and Brinnon. Two examples of this are: Why will the Port of Port Townsend not encourage any marine trades businesses to locate in or around the Herb Beck Marina in Quilcene? The process used against the Olympic Peninsula Physical Therapy Office operating in the McClanahan Construction Building has been trying to remodel the office building to make it more suited to their business needs. After spending thousands of dollars in pre-permitting, the owner is notified that her business use is not allowed and must relocate.
This has also been used to make it very expensive and difficult to build or remodel an existing home in our community. I have not spoken to a single person who has gone through this process, trying to do the “right thing,” who feels good about the process or that the process added value to what they were trying to accomplish, especially when costs of permitting are factored in.
My experience over the last 30 years has been similar. If “affordable housing” means anything, it should start at the planning department being completely overhauled and a lot more common sense used in charges and procedures that need to be followed.
I suppose this will ruffle some feathers, but it is long overdue and needs to be put under scrutiny by the voters of our community.
James Hodgson
Quilcene
