By Steve Ulvi
Journal contributor
Strong, resilient communities don’t just happen. There must be a collective will to succeed together as a community, a protective sense of place and an eye toward an intentional future. But San Juan Island is deeply fissured and at odds when it comes to solutions for basic socio-economic needs when the “free market” fails miserably. Our deplorable lack of affordable rentals and homes is the result of years of procrastinating councils, a tangled bureaucracy, entitled NIMBYism, a disengaged general public and a lack of creative ideas.
The most vexing modern socio-economic issue, magnified tenfold on a small, vacation destination island, is the lack of reasonable places to live for many residents with modest incomes; essential service workers, caregivers, teachers, elders and throngs of seasonal employees. After barrels of ink and frequent handwringing, progress remains a crapshoot as we fall further behind. Over 3,000 housing units are needed across the county given growth projections.
The Growth Management Act, a timely land preservation idea, has allowed for a delusional vision of single-family exurban island lifestyles, disconnected from the realities and key drivers of our insular economic opportunities. Thankfully, our little county passed a modest tax on real estate transactions in 2018, after an inexplicable slap down by SJI voters a decade earlier. The Home Fund has been a sparkling jumpstart but is alone insufficient for substantial progress.
Funds for permanently affordable home proposals are effectively marshaled but are likely tapped out for the next few years by existing projects, with others in the quay. Land is available in the county and glaringly so in the inactive Friday Harbor Urban Growth Area. Naturally, the rising cost of materials and labor severely erodes limited funds. Utility systems – especially complex water/sewer systems – are daunting impediments to necessary development. Absent large residential projects, we can’t benefit from that scale of economy and density incentives to require some affordable units.
Business interests naturally hate inconsistency and sluggish processes. The biggest employers, who have long-strained available housing stock, finally plan to build their own employee housing. A handful of non-profit organizations, land trusts and foundations have been working heroically to show the way to incremental success and keeping us from economic implosion.
We are suffering a farcical phase of County government, resulting in a log jam of land use and construction permits, with no priority for critical affordable housing nor necessary incentives. In recent years the state passed significant legislative relief enabling increased density, redefining tiny homes and numerous incentives for lower income housing. Our misnamed community development department is so discombobulated by lack of staff, iffy management, convoluted procedures and a huge permit logjam that we are incapable of writing simple ordinances and policies to incorporate less restrictive state laws. And now a reduced 32-hour workweek!
Adaptive tiny house policies for allowable rural clusters or the UGAs have been meticulously drafted by the Housing Advisory Committee but have moldered for 20 months. Entrepreneurs, investors and big donors are rightfully wary of our administrative quagmire. Pogo said it all!
