A group of us living in the Jackson’s Beach neighborhood have appealed the county’s decision on the Pear Point to Turn Point connector road, and want to explain why.

First and foremost, the county’s transportation dollars should be put to better use. We urge the county to put those dollars to work improving Grover street, and the Grover-Argyle intersection, by adding sidewalks, curb bulbs, improving the sight lines, and fixing the parking situation at the Friday Harbor Elementary School fields. Let’s make Grover a model safe street for all users, rather than leave it substandard and worsen the situation on Pear Point Road as well.

Part and parcel to this improvement should be reopening the development agreement between the town and developers (Buck, Norman, Soll, San Juan Home Trust) and eliminating the requirement for a connector road but opening up the Grover Street connection to all traffic (as planned, it will currently only be open to emergency vehicles). The town, with a renegotiated development agreement, could also green light the expansion of the San Juan Home Trust ahead of the complete development of the for-profit plat, which is now required simultaneously.

The bottom line is that the county should not be spending somewhere between $380,000 and $1,200,000 (the prior county engineer’s estimate of the roads’ cost) to pave the way for both for-profit and home trust projects when much better uses for the money exist, and when we can still expand the home trust development.

Gib Black

Friday Harbor