Hot Topics
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Financial Sustainability Initiative
Financial sustainability is critical, allowing the City to meet ongoing and evolving community needs and aspirations over the long-term. Providing basic infrastructure and services that underpin a healthy natural environment, meaningful economic development, and a high quality of life for residents means carefully balancing the community’s ability to generate revenues and to match the cost of services and obligations over the long term.
Evans Vista Housing Development Master Plan
Like in other areas of Washington State and the nation, the lack of local affordable housing supply has devastating ripple effects on families, critical services, our education system, and our local economy. Rapidly rising house prices have driven out individuals and families who have long lived and worked in Port Townsend. Housing is one of five focus areas in the City’s Strategic Plan, calling on the City to “establish systems to support diverse housing options with perpetual affordability.”
Envision Golf Course and Mountain View Commons
The Port Townsend Municipal Golf Course was developed in 1904 and includes a regulation-length 9-hole course, driving range, maintenance buildings, and clubhouse with a commercial kitchen for restaurant services, and retail sales. The Golf Course, once privately owned and operated, was converted to a public course in 1927 and first administered by Jefferson County but is now owned and operated by the City of Port Townsend. The City leases the Golf Course to a local business for management and operations. When converted to a public course, there were deed restrictions on the property. There is a deed restriction that the largest parcel will be used for municipal purposes only.
Healthier Together Initiative
There have been many efforts over the past decades to plan for and rebuild the pool and/or a community health and wellness facility for Port Townsend, East Jefferson County, and Jefferson County as a whole. This background focuses on just the last two decades. Concentrated efforts were made in 2001 by the city, 2008 by a nonprofit, 2012 by the County, 2014- 2018 by the YMCA and Hospital District, and efforts have been stalled since the pandemic. In each of these cases, the efforts did not have the full attention or investment from all community partners. The brief exploration of these processes will help us all learn that the establishment of a health and wellness facility will take the whole community. This is a heavy lift and collaboration is essential.
Cherry Street Housing Project
In 2017, the City and the Homeward Bound Community Land Trust entered into an agreement to deliver affordable housing with the refurbishment of the Carmel building that was barged from Victoria, British Columbia. The City took out an $834,000 bond in 2018 to fund engineering, design, permitting, and pre-construction costs and then authorized a loan to Homeward Bound with anticipated repayment funded partly by the rent of those units. The project was plagued with unanticipated challenges and Homeward Bound agreed to exit the project. The City subsequently authorized the transfer of ownership to another party, Bayside Housing, to complete the project. Work was underway to proceed with the transfer, including advancing a number of land use actions including but not limited to work on easements, right of way dedication, and permit review. Due to rising costs of construction and labor, Bayside Housing determined they were no longer able to take the project on.
Since that decision in June 2022, the City has been working through a number of possible options and scenarios. Those were debuted at the City Council workshop on August 8, 2022. More evaluation and work are underway, and a final decision will be made by City Council in October 2023.
