Rezone Concerns

The Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe and the Suquamish Tribe both oppose the rezone.  The resulting development would damage  the water quality of Gamble Bay and surrounding natural resources and habitat areas, which impacts both Tribes' Treaty rights to hunting and fishing. 

Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe's public comments opposing the proposed rezone: 

Submitted in Public Comments to County Comprehensive Plan by Marla Powers, PGST Environmental Planner  April 6, 2023

"The RR ( Rural Residental Zoning) is inconsistent with RCW 36.70A.070(5)(c)(iii) because the county is mandated to reduce the inappropriate conversion of undeveloped land into sprawling, low density development in rural areas. Conversion of larger tracks of rural land into much smaller 5-acre parcels is low density rural sprawl and does not meet this mandate.

Reclassification Requests: • Application ID 72 total acres 418.90 acres, proposes to change From Rural Wooded (1 du/20 acres) to Rural Residential (1 du/5 acres).

The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe opposes this application. The opposition has been provided to county staff during many meetings. PGST has been working in good faith for the coordination of the Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park design and the Master Plan for the Town of Port Gamble. The owner of these lands must first show that full development of the Historic Port Gamble Town can be completed before requesting more land for rural sprawl development. This location is within the Gamble Creek Watershed that feeds directly into the Port Gamble Bay. The watershed will be impacted by development of any kind, but most intensely impacted with a development of Rural Residential. Deny this application. The Tribe will provide more detailed comments on this application separately."

The Suquamish Tribe's public comments opposing the proposed rezone: 
Source of these quotes:  The Suquamish Tribe 4/14/23 letter emailed to the Kitsap County Department of Community Development re: the Comp Plan.   Subject: Kitsap County Comprehensive Plan Update Draft Land Use Alternatives

"The area covered by the Comprehensive Plan update lies entirely within the Suquamish Tribe’s aboriginal homeland and includes treaty reserved fishing areas and hunting and gathering areas. The Tribe seeks protection of all treaty-reserved natural resources through avoidance of impacts to habitat and natural systems. The Tribe urges Kitsap County to avoid land use decisions that will impact natural resources within the Tribe’s territory, including impacts to the shorelines and waters of the Tribe’s usual and accustomed fishing areas."

"These areas were zoned urban restricted or rural protection due to the fact that they were constrained over 50% by critical areas such as wetlands, streams or steep slopes...As water flows downhill, developments higher in the basin have potential to impact a longer reach of stream channel than those lower down in the basin. The focus should be on a stronger Alternative 2 (Compact Growth/Urban Center Focus) with an emphasis on upzoning existing urban areas."

"If housing is allocated towards the already built-up areas where much of the surface is already impervious, the creation of new stormwater impacts and impacts upon groundwater recharge (hence stream baseflows) will generally be reduced compared to putting housing into the rural areas. More people can be accommodated with less impervious surfaces by building up, rather than laterally. Development should be directed towards areas that are already served by existing or currently planned stormwater systems that deliver stormwater to receiving waters that do not require flow duration control.     

"Increasing development in rural areas leads to more stream crossings (both public and private). Each stream crossing represents an impact to aquatic and riparian habitat. Even if designed to current standards, climate change induced future peak flows might exceed those standards resulting in potentially more points of failure."