shape future of city
By John Leggett-The Courier-Herald
Buckley City Council members
spent three hours in a special session
July 29 and had another meeting
scheduled for earlier this week in an
attempt to iron out some of the wrinkles
remaining in their zoning and
stormwater comprehensive plans.
The lion’s share of the July 29 gathering
was spent on details surrounding
the new comprehensive zoning
plan.
“We have to keep in mind what our
philosophy is - building affordable
housing and keeping open space as
well,” said Christy Boyle-Barrett, who
chairs the council’s public safety committee.
“We also have to project what things
are going to be like in Buckley 10 to 15
years from now,” she said. “We have to
think long term and maybe even have
a mixture of home and lot sizes.”
As discussion continued, Mayor Pat
Johnson reminded the council that the
special session was already two hours
old and they had yet to introduce the
other pressing topic on the evening’s
agenda, that of delving into the stormwater
comprehensive plan.
Once the council directed its attention
to that longstanding and controversial
issue, it was determined
that it would break new ground and
ask local resident Marvin Sundstrom
for his input. Sundstrom’s assignment
is to pen a rough draft concerning
the current condition of the Buckley
stormwater system and put forth a
few suggestions for improving the
situation.
Sundstrom, who was in the audience,
said he would do what the council
requested and “come up with a factdriven
and anecdotal” rough draft.
After Buckley’s City Administrator
David Schmidt and Sundstrom discussed
some of the challenges that
lay ahead -not the least of which is
the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s
mandate to save salmon - it was
agreed that because of the late hour,
the discussion would be continued
this week. The follow-up meeting took
place Tuesday, following press deadlines.
John Leggett can be reached at
