Friday Harbor Town Council March 6, 2025

The mayor announced he has a great grandchild. In opening public comment, a citizen stated their concerns that the town was holding the Home Trust, which was building affordable housing to higher standards than for-profit developers citing the actions toward Holly Walk vs. Finnegan’s Ridge. A second citizen said that town standards for brighter streetlights and more sidewalks would give the town a big city ambience that many residents did not want. The mayor ceded his chair to respond as a member of the public, but council raised a point of order, and the mayor did not respond.

The public work director updated the council on the wastewater treatment plant project; the street classification update; the water treatment plant. and traffic safety.   With a recent meeting with state and federal funders the town is preparing to put the wastewater treatment plant project out for bid on April 1 and to award the contract by July1 to meet the deadlines for the outside funds. The council approved an amendment to the project to cover added construction funds from the Department of Ecology. At about $20 million, this will be the largest project the town has done in some time.

He reviewed the proposed street classifications for streets that are not classified on the current map and proposed reclassifying Harrison from C Street to Turn Point, which is access for Pear Point; Lampard Street which is access for Hillcrest, Ross, and Browne streets; and Carter which serves as access to businesses and neighborhood streets as local access streets vs. residential. This will reflect their actual use and let the town apply for grants funds for improvements to these streets. Residential street improvements must be paid for by local funds.  At the request of the Planning Department in connection with the Comp Plan update he raised reclassifying Larson as local access to eventually connection with Beaverton Valley Road to relieve traffic pressure on the Guard and Tucker intersection. This was set aside for later consideration. As part of the update, he proposed code amendments to classify streets according to use rather than rights of way width and clarifying street lighting standards and code enforcement for private roads.

He briefly updated the council on further progress on the water treatment plant expansion noting the switch from pumps to gravity flow will increase practical capacity as filters can operate independently, rather than all shut down together for maintenance. Finally, he shared with the council the new traffic and pedestrian safety material they are designing to educate residents and visitors. They are removing vegetation where trees have obscured streetlighting.

They added a discussion about Nash Street lighting and a follow-up on Finnegan’s Ridge issues to future agenda items.  

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