For the last few years, a handful of Islanders has met monthly in an effort to determine the future shape of Vashon’s unincorporated town, a swath of commercial and residential properties that extends north to Cove Road and south to Cemetery Road.

With minimal support from King County staff and virtually no budget, the committee has tackled the nuts and bolts of updating a town plan that hasn’t been altered since 1996, when it was first crafted with the help of a professional facilitator and hired consultants. 

Now, the group is beginning to come forward with some of its most significant recommendations to date. And at the March 21 Vashon-Maury Island Community Council meeting, those in attendance overwhelming approved one of them — a motion calling for the creation of Vashon town’s first sign ordinance, which would allow sandwich-board signs in the town but ban any additional electronic signs such as the ones at Island Lumber and Vashon Thriftway.

But two other proposals — efforts that could more dramatically shape the future of the unincorporated town — faced a lot of questioning at the community council meeting. As a result, the committee withdrew the motions and said it would bring them back to the community council for a vote at its April 18 meeting. What’s more, according to some members of the Town Plan Committee, the group may reconsider the two proposals altogether, even though the measures won committee support by a 9-1 vote earlier this month.

“We’re just not there yet,” said Natalie Sheard, owner of Cafe Luna and one of the key players in the committee. “We’re no longer in consensus, given the response we got (at the community council meeting).”

The proposal that stirred the most controversy is one that would add language to the town plan calling for a survey of Island residents before new construction takes place within the town’s boundaries. Another provision says new construction next to a historic building has to use architectural styles that complement the historic structure. 

Several committee members strongly support both measures, which they hope would protect the integrity of some of Vashon’s oldest buildings and give Islanders a much greater voice in the shape of the Island’s future.

Melodie Woods, who has served on the committee since its inception nearly four years ago, said she and other residents are frustrated by the limited input Islanders currently have when new construction is proposed. Under county rules, only those with 500 feet of the proposed land-use change generally get a notice about an impending project from the county, and it usually reaches residents after the developer “has spent considerable time and money,” Woods noted.

The King County Library System’s effort last year to move the Vashon library branch a mile south of the town core — a decision it initially made with virtually no notice to residents — served “as a wake-up call” to the Island, Woods said.

“We want to have a say in such things,” said Woods, a commercial TV producer who’s working on a graduate certificate in sustainable design. “This is our town. This is our community.”

Sheard agreed. “How can we go wrong in adding the community into the decision-making? Right now, it’s only developers and the county at the table.”

But the committee’s decision stirred concern among some Islanders who believed the two measures were a veiled attempt to thwart Vashon Allied Arts, which plans to build a multi-million-dollar performing arts center adjacent to the Blue Heron, a historic building just within the town core. The one “no” vote at the Town Plan Committee meetings was cast by Paul Martinez, a VAA board member who’s been coming to the committee meetings largely to keep an eye on how its actions might affect VAA’s plans.

Martinez said he believed the committee’s actions were directed at VAA because of the discussion he’s heard around the table at Café Luna, where they regularly meet. “They’re not coming from a place of support. Maybe I’m hearing the conversations more than I’m reading the materials,” he said.

Either way, he added, a review process that entailed some sort of broad-based survey — the details of which have yet to be drafted — could throw a wrench into a development. “It presents an undefined burden on any project,” he said.

Instead, he called for a community-vetting process that involved what he called “an educated public,” where community members weigh in after they’ve seen architectural renderings at an open house or other kind of public forum. VAA’s architects plan to hold such an open house, he said.

“Our architects have used public input for many years, for many projects,” Martinez said. A broad-based survey without a chance for architects to interact with community members and educate them about the project, he added, “is not a sophisticated way to encourage a high-quality project.” 

But Doug Dolstad, an Islander who brought the idea of a survey to the Town Plan Committee earlier this year, said he believes some kind of “interactive feedback system” is on the cutting edge of community development, a progressive tool that could strengthen and deepen the Island’s sense of community.

“I’m looking for ways to take advantage of the technologies we have to nurture community dialogue. … Good community planning processes … confer a veto mechanism onto the community — something that reflects community values and changing technologies that might come into play,” he said.

Dolstad said he was disappointed but not surprised to learn that the Town Plan Committee may reconsider its stance on his proposal to include some form of community survey in the town’s design review process. 

“Anytime anybody suggests anything that could change the way things are and especially shift the ability to make meaningful decisions — it’s going to make people uneasy,” he said.

But Woods said it’s still possible the committee could put forward a motion calling for a survey. Stressing that she was speaking for herself, she said she realizes the committee “has hit a nerve with VAA.” Before the committee moves forward, she added, she now believes the group will need to hold a forum or find another way to gather more input. 

“Given the response at (the community council) meeting, this is a thornier issue than we imagined, and we realize that we need to go back and give this some more thought and involve the community to a greater extent,” she said.

The committee’s actions need to win the support of not only Vashon’s community council but also the nine-member King County Council. The updated town plan will be folded into the county’s comprehensive plan, go out for public review in September and be presented to the county council next March.

What’s more, any changes to the town plan that go beyond current county code will require an amendment to county code, said Paul Reitenbach, a senior policy analyst, with the county’s Department of

Development and Envir-onmental Services. A survey or other restrictions on building development would likely fall into that category, he said.

Meanwhile, some committee members say they’re pleased that the panel is beginning to tackle some substantive issues but are frustrated that it still hasn’t addressed a wider range of important environmental and community matters and now likely won’t, because the deadline to complete the update is fast approaching. 

Evan Simmons, who has attended several meetings, said the committee process has been “ragged,” with no clear statement of principles or a thoughtful composition of members that guarantees a balance on the panel. Rather, he said, anyone who shows up can participate, leading to a situation where “people attend to some large degree to defend a personal or group interest.”

“The process has been quite haphazard,” he said. “There have been some good ideas that have come out, and I think there has been some progress. But it’s been a slow progress.”

Bob Powell, who attended meetings for a while and then quit, agreed. The problem, he said, is that some of the issues he and others wanted to tackle are beyond the reach of a committee staffed only by citizens.

“I think it’s great that people are trying so hard to do it, and I hope their enthusiasm will carry over into the next four-year cycle, at which time I hope the county can lend the professional assistance to the task that it’s been unable to fund this time around,” he said.