The Shaw Island community has managed its affairs efficiently for decades with a simple, clear Subarea Plan, which prohibits new industrial uses, and a small Public Works site at our community building. All of the road work needed for its 12 miles of county road has been accomplished from that site every seven years, which sits empty 98% of the time. It is, however, intensively used for much-needed parking and fire and ambulance accessibility next to the community building which is our disaster shelter location. Public Works has threatened to fence it off if they don’t get to expand onto the property they bought for $1,050,000 at the far end of the island. They asked for and got another $200,000 to pay for tree removal on the new property, repair of the deficient well, decontamination of soils at a refuse burn site, and removal or alteration of existing buildings, among other things.

This $1,200,000 expense is unnecessary as Colin Huntmeyer, the manager of Public Works, explained to the County Council in a recorded meeting last summer. He told them that he could manage Shaw’s road work from its present 1-acre site for “20-ish” years. Asked what he would do if he can’t get an industrial-use designation on the purchased property, he said “We’d sell it.”

More recently, in its permit application to downzone the Neck Point property, Public Works also stated that it did not need all the land it had purchased. It admitted that the purchased property “allows for more uses beyond the industrial needs of Public Works. In the event the County sells the property in the future and another entity choses [their misspelling] to develop it, it could be subject to a wide range of uses.”

The County’s land-use tables show that this wide range of uses could include concrete batch plants; bulk fuel storage facilities; commercial composting; garbage and solid waste transfer; recycling processing; wrecking and salvage yards; treatment of sewerage, sludge, and septage; and other heavy industrial uses. All of these uses could be permitted at a site in the middle of a residential neighborhood on the northwest end of Shaw Island, a considerable distance from the current work site and even farther from the ferry landing.

These uses are contrary to the purpose and spirit of the Shaw Subarea Plan, which states as its overriding goal to protect the “quiet, rural environment that results from limited commercial activity and a limited transportation network.” The Plan was adopted by the County commissioners over 30 years ago with overwhelming approval by Shaw residents. It clearly prohibits all industrial uses in Rural Residential Districts, where the Neck Point property is located.

We have what we need for the next 20 years. We will work with the County to find an appropriate expansion if needed as we approach 2040. The resale of the Neck Point parcels, while they are still designated as residential (their highest and best use), will give the County well over a million dollars that is needed for County operations now more than ever. If the designation of the purchased land is changed to industrial, its value will fall by at least 25%, as will the market value of the properties adjacent to it.

For 12 miles of county road work every seven years, the county should not be spending well over $1,200,000 at a time when every dollar counts.

Shaw Island Alliance

Lynn Bahrych, J.D., Ph.D,

Shaw Island