While I support community and citizen forums to discuss relevant issues concerning Vashon Island, I am alarmed by the direction that a sanctimonious few are trying to impose on the majority of Islanders.

We already have in place a plethora of King County regulations that severely limit economic opportunity, both residential and commerial. Have these committee members actually studied in depth the P-suffix conditions that govern the Town Plan and stifle entrepreneurship? It appears they have not.

Now, it’s proposed to have yet another set of superimposed regulations dictating what private industry can or cannot do within the town core. How far will this survey go? Will a business owner have to seek approval to paint their building a different color? Having a community vote on what may or may not be allowed by private industry investing its hard-earned dollars is a spurious attempt by a select few to govern with suspect motives.

One of the more important issues facing this community is the opportunity for sustainable employment and economic viability. It appears to me that this small group would stand in the way of new business and redevelopment.

And the quotes by two of the women on the panel regarding developers is way off-base. What developers? There is a small core of local contractors engaged in single-family residences and individual commercial projects, no established developers here. 

The 2008 King County Comprehensive Plan calls for “enhancement and protection of small business on Vashon Island,” not trying to destroy it with another batch of misplaced, citizen regulatory burdens. 

— Michael Bradley