04/02/2007: "Nantucket Planner May Come To SJC -For A Day"

Councilman Lichter has a friend, who has a friend -one Mr. John Pagini- who lives on the east coast, is as an architect and a planner, and was the director of the Nantucket Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission. Mr. Lichter would like to have Mr. Pagini come to San Juan County to give a one-day presentation about his experiences helping Nantucket through their comprehensive planning process.

Mr. Pagini also has experience in another area that may sound familiar to county residents. He is a board member of the 1000 Friends of Connecticut. There is a connection here with the northwest, in that the original 1000 Friends movement started in Oregon in 1975, as a response to a large population growth that was expanding into “open space” (which, contrary to what the words say, includes forest land, as well as open fields)

Pagini has given a number of talks in the past about his experiences in controlling and directing growth, an Councilman Lichter and his friend (who offered to pay the tab on getting Pagini to Washington) would like the council to invite him to share his experiences in land-use with the Council.

Some of Pagini’s experiences with planning may be interesting, perhaps some more for how they failed, then how they achieved their intended goals. Nantucket tried putting a building cap on construction in an attempt to push development into urban growth areas, but it was removed when it had the opposite affect, resulting in a rush to protect rights by exercising them before they were lost forever. The cap was removed.

There has of late been some serious talk about attempting to compress and condense lot sizes in UGAs (Urban Growth Areas), as a way to allow additional development, but keep it out of open space areas. This too was done in Nantucket when they cut the minimum lot size in half. One of the stated reasons for allowing increased development in UGAs is to address affordable housing. The average property value in Nantucket is around a million dollars, and the official median Income limit is now set at $120,000.

Other areas that may sound familiar: They have a Land Bank; wetland protection; watershed protections; increased inspections of septic systems; solid waste management issues; attempts to address concerns that roads are for use by pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles; to name but some of the areas that San Juan County also has on their on-going “To do” list.

As the late night commercials say “But wait, there’s more!”. Nantucket has worked to remove private property restrictions to shoreline access. They do this by attempting to obtain ownership, or access easements, and if that fails, gain public access by use of eminent domain actions. The SJC Council has been looking at finding a way to allow electric cars on our major roads, but Nantucket had another idea: pass a law that limits the number of cars a household may have. While that idea may not get much traction in SJC, another Nantucket idea may: bicycle and walking trails connected to allow a network of paths and trails. Traffic lights? They also don’t like them, and they also do not want wider roads.

The full council did not seem overly excided by the idea of inviting Pagini, but since there would be no cost to the County, there was no real objection to the idea. Councilman Ranker said that, while he had no objection to hearing about Pagini’s experiences, he would also like to have Staff do some research; into what areas -and by which department- he did not say. Lichter also did not say what happens next, but presumably he will start the process of inviting Mr. Pagini to address the council in a one-day work session.