Opportunity zones crop up again in council talks

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 26, 2026

A program designed to spark investment in low-income areas is getting another chance in Oak Harbor.

The city council unanimously supported the city’s opportunity zone applications to the Washington State Department of Commerce during a city council meeting on May 19.

The discussion came after an April workshop on opportunity zones. City staff have the chance to apply to redesignate its existing census tract and designate a newly eligible tract within the city’s border under the updated program. The new opportunity zone program is intended to boost economic growth in low-income communities by providing extra benefits to business owners within the designated tracts, said Stacie Pratschner, the community services director. One tract covers the downtown central business area, and the other extends from Pioneer Way to Seaplane Base.

Revisiting concerns he raised during the earlier workshop, Councilmember Bryan Stucky still had lingering questions about whether the program would gain traction, since over the nine years it has been available in Oak Harbor, it had no apparent use.

“How are we going to educate people on what this is, with the hope they might get taken advantage of?” he asked, referring to the program. “What can be different from the first time, where, to our knowledge, nobody used it?”

Addressing those concerns, Pratschner acknowledged that participants would likely need personal attorneys or brokers to understand how the tax benefits work. Still, she said the city could engage the public through a variety of tools, including linked educational resources.

Communications Officer Magi Aguilar, who was absent from the meeting, told the News-Times that if their application is accepted, she, alongside Pratschner and Wendy Horn, the grants administrator, will work together to get the word out about the opportunity zones. Aguilar said she will promote it on the city’s social media channels, create a new information page on the City of Oak Harbor website and include information in the utility newsletter.

Mayor Ronnie Wright cautioned that the city would need to avoid crossing the line into offering legal advice.

Councilmember James Marrow said outreach efforts should focus on giving businesses detailed, practical information rather than broad explanations.

“I would suggest that when it comes time to familiarize the businesses with it, it needs to be granular enough so that it can have a direct applicability,” he said. “We can’t neglect the details because we don’t want to deal with them.”

Now that the council members have voted to approve it, the application will be completed ahead of the May 28 deadline.