Editor,

There are complaints that Mary Engle (former county assessor) lacks the background and professional qualifications to serve as county planning director. Jake Stewart (June 18 letter) claims that original position requirements including a college degree and AICP (planning) certification were abandoned to shuffle Engle from assessor to planning director.

Our generally excellent District 1 Commissioner Melanie Bacon tells us she was outvoted by the other two commissioners to put Engle in the director’s chair, but later found her to be a competent administrator that gets permits out the door (July 12 letter). She further claims that any planning, of all things, can be done by other staff there.

So where’s the problem? Well over the last few decades Island County (both citizens and government) has gone to great pain, expense and upheaval to adopt the state Growth Management Plan to keep this place special. In 1998, a detailed comprehensive plan was finally adopted, which defined a desired future for the county and the necessary enabling regulations. This burdensome effort is called “planning,” same name as the department tasked to enact it.

Currently, we’re getting those permits out the door, but those visions and strategies to reach our long range objectives have fallen by the wayside. Is our future to be decided by current market forces or by a carefully developed plan and goals that is getting dusty? If the director doesn’t prioritize our long range plan, I doubt a department beset by high turnover and workload will focus accordingly?

Freeland, for example, was designated an urban growth area so future growth could be directed there and required infrastructure created. The county never got that infrastructure into Freeland so now a whopping 85% of new population growth on the South End goes to the rural areas. That state GMA plan was adopted specifically to avoid such “sprawl.” In fact, it’s the first goal of that law. We now face a critical housing shortage but where are the affordable multifamily, certainly not in Freeland.

I’d like to see a planning director with priorities on the big picture and staff to get the permits out the door, not the other way around, which is not working so well. Let’s have a competitive selection for this crucial position and our future.

Dean Enell

Former Island County Planning Commissioner