The time has come for citizens to help craft and mold a new campground on South Whidbey.
The South Whidbey Parks and Recreation District will conduct its first public input meeting about campground development on 35 acres of land adjacent to Community Park at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 10 at South Whidbey High School in the new commons. Attendees can voice their opinions and thoughts with Director Doug Coutts, parks commissioners and the Seattle-based consulting firm tasked with designing the campground.
Conceptual ideas and topographical maps from J.A. Brennan Associates Landscape Architects & Planners will be presented at the meeting as well as options for the campground’s features and amenities. Jim Brennan, the principal landscape architect and planner for the firm, will be in attendance.
Commissioners Matt Simms and Don Wood will also be integral in the meeting. Both comprise the district’s campground committee. Simms said the public will have two major considerations to mull over, including if the public favors dispersed versus clustered camping.
“It’s kind of a fundamental decision,” Simms said. “Those have consequences in terms of how much site clearing we do, are there more trees or less that we remove, are there more roads and paths through that property? As you disperse things, you may need additional support facilities.”
Simms said the other consideration is whether the public would support a phased approach or a one-time sum for paying for the campground. The district will be searching for sources of money to help fund it. A bond to help fund the campground will also be on the table.
“Figuring out what the public thinks about a phased approach, I think that’s key,” Simms said. “We want to understand what people think, but there are expectations as well.”
Simms said he and Wood attended South Whidbey State Park planning meetings and learned a great deal from its Classification and Management Plan, or CAMP, process.
“We got to see how they were doing it and how they were responding,” Simms said. “That’s how we’ve tried to shape this a little bit.”
Coutts said sticky notes may be a method in which public opinion is gauged at the meeting. Green-colored sticky notes mean approval, while a red note signifies disproval.
“If we get a lot of red on one item and no green, that might go to the wayside,” Coutts said.
Brennan said he will present findings of the firm’s site investigation at the meeting. He will also talk about the types of facilities and activities that can be accommodated within the campground, as well as alternative plans and preliminary ideas that have been developed. The goal, he said, is to make it as interactive and enlightening as possible.
Simms hopes the alternatives will provide large contrasts between the ideas in order to broaden the horizon of considerations.
“Our goal is to come to the meeting with two alternatives, maybe three, on this approach to this property,” Simms said. “It will help frame the discussion a little bit and help people express their thoughts, concerns, and interests.”
For those who cannot attend the meeting, Coutts said he would like to see more people take a campground development survey created by the district.
“We just want to hear the public at this point,” Coutts said. “This process doesn’t work without community input. We’re going to be hammering that on this survey to get additional info as well.”
The survey can be taken at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SL56RK9.
