Volume 31 • Issue 09 • September 2006

Back to content page


Freeland eyes incorporation
Vote could come as early as November 2007

“If we remain under the jurisdiction of the county, will we have the community we want in 20 years?”
That was the question posed by Mike Dolan, Freeland Vision 2025 Chairman, as more than 85 Freeland area residents attended one of two Town Hall meetings in June to hear a presentation by Dolan on what it will mean if people vote to make Freeland an incorporated city.
Those participating wanted to discuss a range of issues surrounding incorporation, including taxes, municipal boundaries and water, sewer, fire and police service.
Members of the Vision 2025 committee, backers of incorporation, answered questions from the citizens gathered. The committee was chartered by the Freeland Chamber of Commerce and Friends of Freeland. Some answers, such as boundaries and specifics related to finances and costs, couldn’t be answered at this time, but Dolan promised they would be available before a petition drive.
“People need and deserve the facts before making important decisions,” Dolan says. “That’s why the committee is taking the time to get the answers right before we throw out unsupported answers.”

Push for incorporation
Why should Freeland incorporate; what are the advantages? Members of the incorporation committee believe the primary benefit of incorporation is the residents of Freeland will have control of their own destiny.
Dean Enell, chairperson for the incorporation committee, says with a projected population surge from 1,850 in 2000 to a projected 3,100 by 2010, local control is the only way residents will be able to retain the rural character that locals cherish. He says he worries residential and commercial building permits have escalated within Freeland, yet there has been no planning for infrastructure growth needed to accommodate the changes.
Phil Bakke, Island County planner, acknowledges more planning needs to take place in Freeland, and it’s been a frustratingly slow process for his office as well as incorporation proponents.
Island County’s non-municipal Urban Growth Area (NMUGA) plan for the Freeland area is currently on the back burner while the county completes the state-mandated UGA planning for the entirety of Island County. The update must be completed within a certain timeframe, which has left little time for other projects, Bakke explains.
“We hope to be able to get back into [Freeland’s NMUGA] next year,” he says.
Meanwhile, as citizens work to guide the incorporation effort, Enell proposes they stay focused on specific goals of maintaining a rural, small-town character while accommodating growth; creating an economically sustainable framework to run the city; and putting proactive, integrated planning for economic activity, residential needs, transportation and natural areas in the hands of locals.
However, Bakke says, there’s a disconnect between backers of Freeland’s incorporation and realities of what can be accomplished – especially in regard to how much control an incorporated Freeland could have over rural areas.
“By definition cities are not rural, they’re urban,” he says.
The proposed city boundaries, as Bakke says he understands them, include a lot of rural land – land that under a UGA can’t be rural because urban areas, simply put, must be urban. That includes providing urban services such as sewer and storm water management. And until the sewer plan is OK’d, the process will be stalled.
“You can’t begin to apply urban standards until you have installed urban services,” Bakke says.

The tax question
The question most frequently asked by locals is whether incorporation will mean more taxes for those living within the new city. Incorporation backers say for now, the new city of Freeland should be in a position to improve city services without an increase in taxes. Freeland has a healthy and well-balanced potential tax base consisting of sales, property, lodging, excise and gas taxes (road maintenance), and regulatory license fees.
Committee member Chet Ross called Freeland “a cash cow for the county,” meaning the area sends more tax money to the county than it receives in services.
Bakke cautions that incorporation proponents may be too optimistic about the new city’s tax base. Typically, he says, would-be cities underestimate the cost for contracted services and city administration while overestimating the tax base.

Incorporation timeline
With the high level of community interest, it is possible the Incorporation Committee will start circulating petitions for incorporation as early as this fall, with a vote in November 2007. To bring incorporation to a vote, 10 percent of registered voters have to sign a petition. In an election, only a majority is needed to become a city.
To get to that point, a considerable amount of work still needs to be completed, Bakke says, including finalizing the water and sewer boundaries and how much business owners in the initial sewer outlay area will be required to pay.
“I think the vote will be less about money than how it will change what people are accustomed to seeing in Freeland,” says Bakke, who grew up on Whidbey Island.

– Carolyn Browne Tamler and Hilary Parker contributed to this report.


Back to content page