New details, concerns emerge about fairgrounds housing

By KATE POSS

Special to The Record

The Port of South Whidbey recently unveiled an updated conceptual plan for “workforce” housing, which foresees units built on top of new concession stands on the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds.

The plan proposes demolishing, moving and rebuilding of the fairgrounds’ aging food booths and main stage.

Port commissioners met with four members of the Langley City Council and city staff at a special meeting last week to walk around the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds and Event Center. Councilmember Chris Carlson did not attend.

Port Commissioner Curt Gordon explained that the existing structures needed to be moved and improved and that the proposal for 11 to 14 housing units would help the gap in affordable housing for local working people.

“In the not so long run, they have to go,” Gordon said regarding the food booths, whose Dalton Lane-facing exteriors show signs of rot.

A draft plan of the concept was presented by Rick Brown of Langley-based Brown Associates Architects. The plan shows rental housing units built above reconstructed concession booths, along with a ground-level ADA rental unit.

The proposal isn’t without concerns. A big consideration for some people is that the new plan would move the buildings’ existing footprint into the fair’s midway. Currently, the concession buildings and stage extend up to 10 feet into property owned by the South Whidbey School District on Dalton Lane. This arrangement has existed since the Fair Association began construction of its buildings during the 1930s. A Washington State law concerning adverse possession — which could “grandfather” the occupant’s continued right to use the land — will be considered by Langley city staff.

During the tour, the officials considered a line of white tape applied on the asphalt, which showed the reality of the midway’s reduction by about 20 feet.

Langley Mayor Pro Tem Rhonda Salerno said the encroachment into the midway impacts her decision.

“This is the first time in all the meetings, even at the Chamber of Commerce meeting, that I attended, that I have heard about the midway being affected to that extent,” Salerno wrote in an email following the presentation.

Salerno noted the opinion represented her own thoughts, not that she was speaking for the council as a whole.

“The community is very concerned about losing the fair as the primary use of the fairgrounds, and decreasing the midway has been one of those impositions,” she wrote.

The Fair Association Board, which governs the annual planning and hosting of the annual Whidbey Island Fair each July, questions whether the buildings need to be moved and why the port has not taken more steps to maintain them since its takeover and management of the fairgrounds from Island County in 2017.

The port receives about $230,000 a year in revenue from taxpayers, tenant leases and fees. Yet some residents feel that the port hasn’t done enough maintenance. For example, it was Eagle Construction and 4-H volunteers, and not the port, who stepped in to repair rotting support beams and faulty electrical wiring in the horse barns last spring.

The port uses the annual income to fund operations and capital projects.

“With our 1% levy increase each year, the total is about $230,000 that we received in 2023,” Port Executive Director Angi Mozer wrote in an email. “We consider half of that to cover maintenance and operations, and half of that to cover capital projects.”

Elise Gabelein, Fair Association president, said while she and the association support the need for workforce housing in the area, the concession stands are not the right place for it. For instance, the proposed midway encroachment would inhibit fire trucks from entering should they be needed in an emergency.

“The port is adamant we have to move the booths,” Gabelein said. “We’re saying they’ve been grandfathered in — they’ve been there for so long. The city could allow a variance to the keep buildings where they are. We are saying there are other options for affordable housing, why not just do a remodel?”

Gabelein said the fair association is also concerned by the reduction of fairground space already in place — last year the fair lost half of its space in the Monroe Building normally reserved for quilters, flowers, baked goods, beer and wine exhibits to a year-round tenant the port leases space to. And reducing the midway space with the proposal feels like yet another squeeze on the fair’s operations.

The port received a grant from Island County to fund a feasibility study of the project. A total of $150,000 has been awarded for engineering and architecture, infrastructure assessment and to pursue zoning updates with the city of Langley, according to the Port of South Whidbey website.

Mozer said the Feb. 23 walk-through was a step in assessing the feasibility of the project.

“Part of this feasibility study is figuring out how much the project could cost, and how that would be funded,” Mozer replied in an email.

Regarding the setback variance, Mozer wrote that so far officials “have been working under the assumption that we will bring structures onto the fairgrounds property should they be rebuilt.”

“The concept developed to date is assuming that we will request a 5-foot setback from the port’s property for potential new buildings,” she added.

Parking for future residents, water availability, sewer capacity and improvement of the fair’s aging water and electric systems will be evaluated by the city staff, along with other zoning variances required by the port’s proposal.

The city council awaits reports from its staff regarding the port’s plan and will discuss the results in March.

Photo by David Welton Port of South Whidbey commissioners Jack Ng and Curt Gordon and Angi Mozer, the port’s executive director, toured the fairgrounds during a joint meeting with the Langley City Council.

Photo by David Welton Port of South Whidbey commissioners Jack Ng, Greg Easton and Curt Gordon toured the fairgrounds during a joint meeting with the Langley City Council.

Photo by David Welton Port of South Whidbey Executive Director Angi Mozer gestures to a white line on the midway of the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds that represents where concession stands will need to be rebuilt.