City Workshop about Parks Plan, 23 February 2012, 6:30 pm

The Port Townsend Planning Commission and Parks, Recreation and Tree Board will hold a joint workshop (February 23, 2012, 6:30 pm, City Council chambers) to accept public comment on the second draft of the Parks Functional Plan update. The Parks Plan must be consistent with our City's Comprehensive Plan.

The format of that public comment is not clear, as it will be facilitated by City staff (see agenda and associated documents at http://cityofpt.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=70). One of the concerns that staff intends to address is in Agenda Section V.3.d.: "Given the purpose of the parks plan, how much descriptive text and history should it contain?"

This concern may be related to efforts by the Friends of Kah Tai Board to insert relevant park history into the draft Parks Plan. You may examine a part of that editing effort at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1je4Ck28FVV3_00ONxUEiO4pvnieAo29k0q9V_JulAr4/edit

City staff should be reminded that we are all in the middle of this current exercise BECAUSE the history and unique standing of Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park was forgotten by both the City and the Port, and all local government's copies of relevant documents were not safeguarded. If the City and Port had been diligent stewards of history, they would not now be on opposing sides in a lawsuit that extends to the National Park Service, trying to resurrect Kah Tai's history and determine our park's future.

You can support this process by attending the meeting and/or by emailing your concerns to the City about the following points:

For the Parks Plan update:

1. Language should be inserted in the Parks Plan to clarify that any proposed future use for Kah Tai allow only 'passive outdoor recreation that is compatible with wildlife habitat'.

2. Longterm planning should include the transfer of the Port's Kah Tai land to the City.

3. Park history belongs in the parks plan in order that City staff and the public can be reminded of what is, and is not, appropriate for a park given its history and status.

For the Comprehensive Plan update:

4. Add to the Comprehensive Plan Glossary the definitions of four park categories that are now in the draft Parks Plan update: pocket/mini parks, neighborhood parks, community parks and natural/open space parks.

If you would like more information or to be emailed copies of the relevant documents, please send an email.

revisionist history

The intent of the 1981 City/Port LWCF acquistion grant was to purchase all available private parcels and transfer all public parcels at Kah Tai to City ownership. When the grant closed in 1985, the public parcels had not yet been transferred, but the PUD and County parcels are now in City hands. The City and Port were grant cosponsors but the Port's land has still not made it into City ownership.

Things were pretty quiet for a decade or so after park creation, but in 1996, the City completed its Comprehensive Plan, designating Kah Tai as Public/Open Space (P/OS) as it had been since 1968. The Port cites City Resolution 97-08 as confirmation from the City that the Port can file for any redesignation it chooses for its Kah Tai land when a 1982 lease expires in July 2012. The implication is that the Resolution arose as an outcome of a Port appeal before the Western Washington Growth Management Board against the City.

A few facts are missing from that rendition of history. The Port did not apparently file a GMHB appeal against the City. Petition no. 96-2-0029 was filed by Jefferson County Homebuilders against the City on 13 September 1996. The Port filed to intervene on 11 October 1996, just prior to the prehearing conference. GMHB documents indicate that the Port didn't submit a brief on its concerns at the hearing on 14 November 1996.

To appease the Port, the City agreed to language stipulating that like any other landowner, the Port had a right to ask for a redesignation at the end of the lease and also that any future Council was not bound to approve a redesignation. The agreement was sufficient for the Port to withdraw its intervention from the appeal in January 1997. This was unfortunate, because the GMHB found in favor of the City shortly thereafter.

The mystery is how the City and Port managed to go before the GMHB and never once mention that all the Kah Tai land in dispute had been committed by federal grant to a park more than a decade earlier. One wonders what the GMH Board might have said to the Port if it knew the Port was trying to redesignate federally protected park land for commercial use.

Some would like us to believe that since the City does not own the Port parcels at Kah Tai, those parcels are no longer part of the park come August 2012. The reality is more interesting. In August 2012, our park will managed by a two-headed monster,  two municipalities at odds and with no lease agreement between them. But both will be required to manage the park by LWCF standards.

If you have concerns about threats to our park or believe that it is not being protected as required by LWCF rules, contact our National Park Service field office (Seattle 206-220-4123, Federal Grant No. 53-00486) or our Washington State Agency (360-902-3000, State Grant No. 81-043A).

Comprehensive Plan Amendment for Kah Tai

The Friends of Kah Tai Board of Directors recently submitted testimony to the City Planning Office with regard to the upcoming Comprehensive Plan Amendment hearing. The hearing will include consideration of an amendment proposed to insert protective language for Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park into the Comprehensive Plan. There are several versions proposed for the Amendment. The Friends of Kah Tai submitted the first iteration back in February 2011. The City followed suit with its own version. The Admiralty Audubon Society developed language based on wording found in the original grant documents. 

The Friends combined these various versions of language and propose the following language to be included as a Comprehensive Plan Amendment.

"We respectfully submit this as written testimony for consideration of amendments to be adopted for Item 2.5 Kah Tai Lagoon Park Policy (LUP11-015) and request the following be included in the City of Port Townsend Year 2011 Comprehensive Plan:

4.5.1 Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park shall be designed and managed in accordance with the legal obligations assumed under the 1981 Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund Acquisition Grant.

4.5.1a Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park shall be maintained so as to allow only passive outdoor recreation uses that preserve and enhance the natural habitat of the lagoon, wetlands, buffers, and uplands."

ad hoc intergovernmental report, 1977

zoning map in ad hoc report, 1977

It turns out that the base map for the IAC/RCO map shown in the previous post comes from a report entitled 'Kah Tai Lagoon - a Summary Report from the ad hoc Intergovernmental Advisory Committee' completed in February 1977 by City, County, Park and Port representatives. The report was the result of an effort to solve the problem of what to do with Kah Tai.

Also included in the ad hoc report is an ownership map of lands at Kah Tai. Note the varied ownership symbols for the land that is claimed by the Port, all land between the lagoon's south shore and Sims Way.  Click on maps to enlarge.

ownership map in ad hoc report, 1977

a piece of the puzzle

Map from RCO file for Kah Tai grant #81-043.

If the Port never intended to include all of its Kah Tai land in the park created with LWCF funds in 1981, what is this map (click to enlarge) doing in the official 81-043 grant application files at the State Recreation and Conservation Office?

The map highlights two things. One is zoning, showing that all public land in the park boundary is zoned P-1, Public Use, as it has been in every City Comprehensive Plan since 1968. And the second thing it shows is ALL the land at Kah Tai that was owned and/or controlled by the Port at the time of park creation.

That oddly shaped yellow parcel on the west is the property donated by HJ Carroll 'for park purposes only' and held by the Port in retroactive waiver from 1977 until it was included in the park as a part of a required local match for the 1980 application process. And the big yellow parcel to the south of the lagoon? Why, that's all that dredge-spoil-created uplands that the Port now claims it never intended to include in the park. You know, the non-lagoon, non-marsh part where people can walk with their families and their dogs, and bicycle, and sit peacefully to enjoy nature writ relatively large for an urban area. The part with the play meadow, and the bathroom and shelter built by volunteers in 1985. The part of the park that isn't supposed to be a park.

So, could someone explain why this map would be prominent in RCO records for the park acquisition grant if it wasn't intended to show ALL the Port holdings to be included in the park? Why would a map be in the official records while highlighting holdings that were included and holdings that were excluded - and make NO differentiation?

Building a shelter, 2011 edition

Volunteers frame the picnic shelter, 1985. 

The City Council's Resolution (see previous post) is an important step in the process of sheltering Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park from development. An article in Wednesday's Leader gives a brief overview. A couple of very appropriate recent letters (here and here) to the Leader editor are at the 2011 Letters link above but you might enjoy the comments to the letters online. In true Port Townsend fashion, there are as many opinions as there are citizens. And some of those opinions are actually based on facts!

The Comprehensive Plan Amendment for Kah Tai, first proposed in late February 2011, is still working its way through the process at the City. Next up in that process is the Planning Commission hearing, currently scheduled for 12 January 2012. Stay tuned for more information. This is an important opportunity to be heard, as we are each allowed 3 minutes to share our opinions with the Planning Commission.

Also on the Planning Commission agenda is the draft update to the Parks Functional Plan. You can find more information about this important document as well as the amendment process at links on the lower right of the City's website.

that says it all

From the City Council web documents:

5 December 2011

RESOLUTION NO. 11-039

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PORT TOWNSEND,
WASHINGTON DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY TO
DEFEND THE CITY IN THE LAWSUIT FILED BY THE PORT AGAINST THE CITY,
AND SUPPORT THE DETERMINATIONS MADE BY THE NATIONAL PARK
SERVICE AND THE STATE RECREATION AND CONSERVATION OFFICE THAT
ESTABLISH A 6(F) BOUNDARY FOR 78.5 ACRES AT KAH TAI, AND VIGOROUSLY
RESIST ANY CLAIM BY THE PORT TO REQUIRE THE CITY TO PAY THE PORT
DAMAGES. 

 

You can download the full document here: (https://weblink.cityofpt.us/WebLink8/0/doc/60803/Page1.aspx)

Note that the full document is very large and a bit unwieldy to download, but it is well worth reading. If you'd like a slimmed-down version, send an email.