Sequim Gazette staff

The big signs are back around the city and this time they are encouraging people to help plan the future for Sequim’s new neighbors — 3,000 to be precise.

Chris Hugo, City of Sequim director of community development, said the city is likely to see 3,000 new people come to Sequim over 20 years as shown from the city’s 50-year growth pattern.

With that information, he and other city officials are seeking input for growth alternatives and expectations for land use.  

“It sounds like a big number but it’s all relative,” Hugo said. “Our next work is to vision and accommodate people in a meaningful way.”

As part of Sequim 120, the Comprehensive Plan update process, the city hosts four opportunities to participate:

• One-hour workshops at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St., with interactive activities including pulse pad visual quizzes, mapping activities and discussion.  

• Drop-in open houses from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, and noon-3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, at 167 W. Washington St., behind That Takes the Cake.

Looking ahead

The city began the visioning process more than a year ago after the city council adopted the Sequim 120 Vision Statement in August 2012.

Hugo said some elements of the vision statement are challenging to plan for such as maintaining a rural environment while promoting growth downtown. Some of the questions he said it poses include: “Where does it make sense to add industry,” “What does safe mean,” “Does density make sense outside of downtown in the city,” etc.  

To develop a friendlier city environment, Hugo said it’s less running into friends at the grocery store and more spontaneous interactions in random places with random people.

“We want to create more venues of amenities and service, such as downtown, where people are coming and going, getting cultural experiences; places that feel good,” he said.

For more information, call 582-2448 or e-mail sequim120@sequimwa.gov.

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Sequim 120 Vision Statement

"Sequim will continue to grow and develop as the thriving activity center and civic/cultural heart of the Sequim-Dungeness Valley while maintaining our friendliness, lifestyles, “small-town” convenience and overall high quality of life. We choose to preserve surrounding rural lands by directing most residential growth into the city to contribute to a more complete fabric of neighborhoods as well as new downtown living. We value diversity and choice by insuring a broad variety of housing, mobility, lifestyle and economic options to meet the needs of all age groups and family types. We respect that the legacies of our past create a civic duty for a well-planned and well-managed future guided by the quality-of-life interests of all citizens.

Within this vision, the community desires that …

• growth will occur mostly within the current urban growth area rather than continuing to push outward;

• rural lands will be preserved for the agritourism, food production, visual qualities and open space they afford city residents;

• new homes will fill in undeveloped residential lands to strengthen neighborhoods by enhancing safety, creating more livable streets, providing opportunities for mutual support and promoting a social fabric where “small-town friendliness” is experienced every day;

• a more compact pattern of growth will create a future that is affordable in all ways – physically, environmentally, socially, and economically;

• Downtown will grow in activity and purpose not only to serve as the heart of the city and surrounding valley but also to function as the core of a residential neighborhood that is the setting of most multifamily development;

• greater diversity in age, household type, ethnicity, income, lifestyle, housing, mobility and economic activity will increase community opportunities, variety and interest;

• improved street and path connectivity among places of living, shopping, services, employment and recreation will increase mobility, convenience and transportation choices;

a wide variety of housing types will serve all lifestyles, ranging from single-family homes on large lots to cottage housing, town-homes, accessory dwelling units, assisted living and downtown apartments and condominiums;

• higher density housing will be directed to locations where services, convenience and amenities make it an attractive lifestyle choice;

• Sequim will be a more “complete” community by bringing unincorporated suburban areas that depend on the city’s public services, facilities, amenities and civic activities within the city boundaries;

• Sequim’s role as a major steward and purveyor of finite natural resources in the valley will be reflected in a pattern of growth that promotes efficiency in resource utilization and sustainable resource management;

• the community’s image and identity will be promoted by active management and responsible stewardship of both the human-built and natural environments; and

• Sequim will grow as a community of all ages, from families with children, to young adults, to singles of all ages, to empty-nesters, to active seniors, to those needing specialized care and to those nearing end-of-life."