(Reported by Beth Nichols)
I tried to take some notes from tonight's meeting- presentation by North Kitsap United-- Here are a few rough things that stand out for me.
(Video of this meeting will eventually be posted on the North Kitsap United website. Note that the NKU site is written by Raydient Corporation by their professional corporate staff. Our website is completely written and managed by volunteers who live in this community.)
There were definitely lots of folks at the December 12 meeting with significant concerns, and asking great questions.
-Sewage from homes and project could be up to 100,00 gallons a DAY ( the NKU report says 75,000 gallons a day, still a huge amount ) to be handled with on-site septic systems!-- On a Critical aquifer recharge area. THIS DOES NOT sound like a wise idea.
Big Questions about safety to our water and who would pay for the maintenance of that system over time
-Claims there are no wetlands and no streams, no stream channels on the property, they visited in October ???? They claim they will recheck in January – the County mapping does show streams
-Jon Rose admits traffic would be a huge challenge- would be a “fail” on several of the intersections with additional traffic on this new project
-Raydient / Rayonier will harvest ( clearcut) all the timber on the 400 acre property before the sale or rezone. 35 year old trees, planted in 1990, considered mature
-Jon Rose admitted that the best option for wildlife, for traffic, for water is to keep the land in 20 acre parcels.
- Clint Boxman, Rotary had a list of all the current sports facilities and how inadequate they are- but some new developments were left off the list, such as NKSD levy improvements, PERC, others coming on line that were left off in their review.
-Their feasibility study stated that the Tribes had NO comment on the proposal ( but in the Comp Plan the S'Klallam Tribe definitely opposes the rezone)
-YMCA says they are still in conversation with Poulsbo about having a site there, in the Poulsbo Event and Recreation Center area, which is already moving forward. ( Poulsbo officially opposes Raydient's proposal)
-Concerns brought up about past dealings with Olympic Property Group, formerly Pope and now Raydient- current Arborwood development is an environmental disaster, Pope and Port Gamble cleanup with Pope leaving much of cleanup to taxpayers when they went bankrupt - Does this corporation really have the community's best interests in mind ??
- Growth Management act is meant to prevent sprawl and uncoordinated development in areas without infrastructure - this project would be in conflict with those goals
What do others remember? Thanks for all who attended and commented!!