Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Langley recently ratified Island County’s planning policies for the comprehensive plan update.

But the seemingly mundane process stirred up quite a bit of concern.

The comprehensive plan, required under the Growth Management Act, is the county’s centerpiece, long-range planning document and contains policies, visions and goals for the next 20 years. One of the first steps in updating the document is to decide where population growth should go. Under the Growth Management Act, most of the population growth is supposed to be directed into municipal areas with appropriate infrastructure.

Under the state’s projection, the county’s population will grow from the current 87,000 people to nearly 103,000 in 20 years. Under the state’s direction, the bulk of the housing for population increases should be planned for urban areas, which in Island County largely means Oak Harbor.

At a recent Oak Harbor City Council meeting, Councilmembers Bryan Stucky and Barbara Armes voted against the county’s policies, as Oak Harbor is taking on the brunt, or about 63%, of the population growth.

According to Stucky, parts of the plan are a “shame.”

“It asks Oak Harbor to be dense to the gills so the South End can maintain their green spaces,” he said.

Principal Planner Cac Kamak said at a council meeting that Oak Harbor is the only community with the infrastructure to support what the state is asking, Historically, 65% of the growth has gone to the county, Kamak said. City planning has been trying to reverse this trend, per state requirements, and this is the best shot.

The process of coming up with the growth numbers was logical, said Councilmember Jim Woessner.

“I’m not going to say it’s worst-case scenario planning, but it is scenario planning, and I get there’s going to be some folks out there who say, ‘oh, the council’s letting the city grow by this percentage,’ and the reality is we really don’t control that,” he said. “What we can control though is how we plan for the future. That’s quite frankly one of our most important jobs.”

According to the Island County plan, Langley must bring on 443 housing units. While this number is significantly lower than Oak Harbor’s, Councilmember Rhonda Salerno voted against it.

Her vote was consistent with that of Maureen Freehill, vice chair of the city’s Planning Advisory Board, at an earlier planning meeting. Freehill noted that because of the small parameters of the city, high land values, limited city budget, unusual growth rate, infrastructure limitations and many other reasons, she would prefer a smaller growth rate to accommodate.

“I’m going to vote no, and that’s for the young people that are going to inherit this area, and that’s my daughter,” Salerno said. “That’s why I’m voting no.”

Coupeville doesn’t have to accommodate as many new units, just 350, as it does not have a growth area outside of the municipal limits. Because of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, many of the state’s requirements for the county planning policy do not apply to to the town.

On the Coupeville council, Rick Walti was the sole “nay” vote. For him, it was a wording issue. He’d prefer if the changes were suggested as opposed to required, he said.

Island County commissioners initially expressed hesitancy about the assignment of the bulk of population growth within municipalities. But they ended up agreeing with the numbers to avoid the state stepping in and possibly making the population assignments even more urban-centric, according to Commissioner Jill Johnson.