K2 Commons
Project warrants broad discussion
The article in last week’s Beachcomber about the K2 Commons project seems to have missed a couple of main points.
First, an 18-acre for-profit real estate development in the center of Vashon Island, on its only main highway, most likely would have a profound economic impact on our Island. This warrants open, inclusive, public discussion about what we, the people of Vashon, really want in a real estate development in our community and in our community center — not what a developer wants to sell us. At our Dec. 27th public meeting, the developer clearly stated that this is a private “for-profit” development in which Vashon citizens have really no say. However, this project and proposed rezone need to be discussed in public with appropriate qualitative, quantitative and comparative data. Generating that information by a developer using “one-on-one tours” or “potential investor sales pitches” is insufficient.
Second, currently before the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council is a motion to rezone these industrial parcels. This rezone should be reviewed in the context of the economic impact on our entire Island — not through the lens of the developer. Why rezone for one developer? What about water issues? What kinds of jobs, if any, are created? How does this change improve commerce? If a rezone is so important, then why not rezone all industrial property? Of note is that this proposed rezone will allow for the balkanization of this 18-acre industrial site into private business condos ranging in size from 1,000 square feet to over 12,000 square feet. As this project progresses, welcome to your new mall!
As good citizens interested in the common good for our community, we need to discuss and analyze this project further. Rezoning, if appropriate, can come later.
Thomas F. Bangasser
Outdoor burning
Proposed ban is an infringement
Outlawing outdoor burning is a misguided infringement on the rights and needs of many rural landowners. Smoldering, wet wood burns should not be tolerated, but this does not accurately describe most outdoor burning.
Burning at the right time and under proper conditions is the best way to handle the extensive land waste generated on large, rural properties. Our needs and waste disposal options in the country are, in fact, quite different from a city dweller with a .10-acre lot. Suggesting that debris piles magically decompose completely and only attract happy critters is not true. Such piles reduce but do not go away completely. Pile up some dead blackberry debris and see what happens. Debris piles are also at least as likely to house problem critters like rats and raccoons as the cuter species like birdies and snakes.
If outdoor burning is outlawed, you will simply replace it with people buying and using noisy wood chippers or driving load after load in pickup trucks to centralized chippers. Both of these activities produce copious noise as well as increased fossil fuel emissions. Let responsible landowners manage their own land as they see fit and regulate only wet, smoky burns.
Charlie Leahey
