Suddenly planning is a very popular subject in Oak Harbor.

Well over 150 people, many of them tense and angry, packed like sardines into a standing-room-only Planning Commission meeting at the municipal shop Tuesday night. The audience trailed into the doorways and hallways and some people left in disgust at the overcrowding.

But nobody got a chance to voice an opinion about the controversial planning issues that could mean a new big-box store or up to 1,000 new homes in the city. The Oak Harbor fire marshal shut down the meeting after about 15 minutes because the room was filled to about double its capacity.

Planners will reschedule the meeting to a larger venue, probably Parker Hall, near the end of August.

“It was the biggest planning meeting I’ve seen,” City Development Services Director Steve Powers said.

The residents were there to speak chiefly about two proposals that could have major impacts on the city. A developer wants to build a shopping center on 33 rural acres at the south end of the city, on Highway 20 south of Waterloo Road.

Also, Dick and Hap Fakkema hope to turn their former 377-acre, historic dairy farm into a combination of residential development and public park land. Their land could accommodate more than 1,000 homes.

Both proponents are asking the city, through the sponsored Comprehensive Plan amendment process, to extend the urban growth area to include their property. The urban growth area, or UGA, is the ring of land around the city identified for future annexation.

At least a couple of people were also there to comment on a proposal to change the zoning on the Calvary Church on SE Ninth Avenue to high-density residential. Church leaders said they want to make the property “available to potential developers” by changing zoning to allow for condominiums.

Based on comments from the crowd, there is a lot of opposition to the proposals in the community. Or in the words of one member of the audience, “they were ready to chuck spears.”

Emotions were running high at the meeting, even though nobody got into the meat of the issues.

Planning Commission Chairman Bob Pettyjohn tried to quiet hecklers.

“Any more cute comments will not be tolerated,” he said, without effect.

The angriest exchange happened between North Whidbey resident Bruce Wood and Powers. Wood interrupted the meeting because he was upset about the crowding and the lack of a PA system. He angrily addressed Powers, who tried to hush him, and called him by a seven-letter swear word that rhymes with casserole.

Afterward, Wood said anger got the best of him when planners ignored an elderly woman next to them struggling to get up after sitting on the floor. She was one of many dozens of people who couldn’t find a chair.

Wood, a retired Navy man, was there in opposition to development plans.

Oak Harbor Battalion Chief Ray Merrill, the city’s fire marshal, said he responded to a 911 call from a cell-phone-packing woman in the crowd. He said capacity of the room is 82 people.

In the end, many people left upset, talking about the planners’ lack of planning for the meeting, instead of the important issues at hand. Others were pleased with the attendance and the decision to move to a larger room.

Local Realtor George Churchill pointed out the irony. “The city for so long has been pleading for citizen input,” he said, “and when they get that much they were surprised.”

Powers said afterward that city staff had no way of knowing that so many people would be at the meeting. The meeting was originally supposed to be at the City Council chambers, but planners moved it to the larger room the week before.

“We were gratified to see this level of interest,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that it overwhelmed our facility.”

At a meeting earlier this month on a related issue — the availability of commercial land in the city — about 100 people crowded into the same room.

Powers said he hopes people will not focus on the unintended problems with this meeting and instead concentrate on the weighty issues facing the community.

Pettyjohn urges people to be civil and thoughtful at the next meeting.

“We can get a lot more done if people can keep their emotions in check,” he said.

You can reach Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or 675-6611.