New site plan for Argyle Lots

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, February 24, 2026

The San Juan Island Community Home Trust unveiled four new designs for public feedback Feb. 12, during an Open House at the Mullis Center.

“We have always had a site plan, that the Town Council has seen,” the Trust’s Interim Director Paul Fischburg clarified, explaining that after signing off on a Development Agreement with the Town, the Trust decided to take a step back and have the architecture team come up with some alternative plans to make sure that the design follows historical review guidelines, fully benefits the community and meets the Development Agreement.

That agreement, Fischburg explained, spells out the permit process and requires them to follow the historic review board guidelines, among other details. In exchange, the Home Trust gets a density bonus, allowing it to build 40 units. Those units are a mix of 10 studio apartments, 14 one-bedrooms and 16 two-bedrooms. Back at the drawing board, the architects began to play with an array of designs that would allow maximum open space.

“We stacked some of the duplexes to create a [quadroplex],” Fischburg said, describing the building’s design as a historic farmhouse appearance. The architects played around with where parking was located, making covered parking in one graphic.

Of the four, one scenario the Feb. 12 attendees loved. This design featured parking located on the edge, and buildings arranged in a “Village Plan” with a common building at the center, surrounded by green area. All the buildings look out to that inner courtyard.

“This is now our site plan,” Fischburg said. The design will be complete for a Town Council meeting on April 2, and the council will provide feedback. That feedback will be used on the Home Trust’s Land Use Application, according to Fischburg. Building permits will happen later.

When asked if this was a typical development process, Fischburg explained that typically, the Land Use and Building permits aren’t split; however, due to a strong desire to abide by historical review guidelines and timing it with the state grant cycle, the Home Trust decided it would be prudent to take one step at a time.

Last winter, the Trust applied for but did not receive a $13 million grant from the state.

“The state told us they had reserved so many requests, and they only had so much money, so they began giving it to those that were shovel-ready,” Fischburg said. That state official also told them that those who did not receive funding were divided into three different tiers. “We were told we are in the first tier. It had to be the nicest rejection,” Fischburg laughed. The takeaway was that the Home Trust will apply again this summer, this time, being as shovel-ready as possible. If they can get their Land Use Permit by April, that can be included in the grant, showing they are getting closer to being shovel-ready.

The grant winners will be announced in January 2027, Fischburg said, when they hope to obtain the grant, and sprint toward a spring groundbreaking.

For those interested, the Home Trust does not have a waitlist for this particular project yet. The timing is still too far away, Fischburg explained, and the current waitlist is for homeownership. This project will be rental, so the Home Trust will be developing a new list altogether.

Fischburg expressed extreme gratitude to the community for the support they have already provided. “Through a capital campaign we ran with the San Juan Community Foundation, we were able to raise over $600,000,” Fischburg said.

Those funds have been used for professional project management, architecture and various site studies.

The capital campaign will fund less than 25% of the project, Fischburg added, thanks to state and County resources like the Washington Housing Trust Fund and the County Home Program. Fischburg acknowledged how much work is still left to make the Argyle project a reality and again expressed thanks to island generosity, saying, “We have used no other money than the capital campaign funds for this project. The community has allowed us to get this far.”

Regardless of the work ahead, the winds are in the Trust’s favor; project manager Karl Eberhard has been completely engaged in the project, and the milestone of signing off on the Development Agreement was met. “We are excited about where we sit with this project,” Fischburg said.