A parcel of land near Maple Leaf Cemetery has been annexed by the city of Oak Harbor in order to build housing.

The annexation was submitted to the city by Raymond Sullivan of Sullivan Home Builders, an Oak Harbor business.

Oak Harbor Senior Planner Dennis Lefevre gave a presentation on the annexation at the City Council meeting last Tuesday. He explained that the property is nearly surrounded by land that’s already in the city.

The L-shaped parcel of land is 6.6 acres in size and is adjacent to Northeast 16th Avenue and east of Highway 20. The proposed zoning for the parcel is R-3 which allows for 9 to 16 dwelling units per acre. Lefevre said this would limit the density to multi-family homes.

The parcel is surrounded by lots with different zonings such as R-4 which is higher density, and R-1 which is lower density.

“It’s kind of a nice transition on zones for this parcel,” Lefevre said.

Cody West, who was present at the meeting to represent Raymond Sullivan, said Sullivan purchased the property from his grandparents and is looking at ways to develop it.

“He’s trying to figure out, in that zone, how we can create some affordable housing,” West said, adding that increasing the density is how Sullivan wants to minimize the cost of the homes.

West said Sullivan is currently planning to build townhomes with four units per building.

“This is another one of those infill properties that we always had envisioned as being developed,” Councilmember Jim Woessner said. “You know, if it was developed years ago, it (would) have been developed with three houses per acre, four houses per acre.”

Woessner went on to say that diversity in types of dwellings is good for Oak Harbor’s neighborhoods.

All council members voted to approve the annexation with the proposed zoning except for Councilmember Bryan Stucky who abstained because his business, Wallin-Stucky Funeral Home, is next to the property.