Commissioners Present: Benye Weber, Bruce Bryson and Ann McDonald

Others Present: Jim Patton (Executive Director), Laura Blankenship (Comprehensive Plan Editor-in-Chief), Amber O'Brien (Edwards & Associates) and Jeff VanderFord (South Whidbey Record), Coupeville Residents: Dale Zimmerman and Don Sherman, Greenbank Residents: Tom Schioler, Linda Riley, Kit Turner, Richard Turner and Carolyn Mercer, Oak Harbor Residents: Jim Baker and Ronald Muzzall

Call to order: The special meeting was called to order at 3:50 pm by Commissioner Weber at the Greenbank Progressive Club in Greenbank, WA.

PURPOSE OF THE MEETING:

The Port of Coupeville is preparing a Comprehensive Plan and the public review phase began on January 10, 2007. This meeting is one of several at which a presentation on the contents of the draft plan will be given, followed by an opportunity for the public to respond. Weber read aloud this purpose and a list of guidelines for the conduct of the meeting. A copy of these guidelines is attached to these Minutes. Weber pointed out that the Board would listen to public comments on the draft plan but would not defend or debate the contents. She said that written and e-mail comments will be welcome until midnight, March 31, 2007. The Board intends to adopt a final plan at the regular Port meeting on April 11, 2007.

PRESENTATION: (Patton) Patton gave a ninety minute presentation on the draft 2007-2026 Comprehensive Plan. A copy of this presentation is on file at the Port Office.

PUBLIC INPUT: Weber opened the meeting to the public. The following comments were made by attendees.

Dale Zimmerman: said: I absolutely have nothing negative to say about the plan today. I have been associated with the Farm in a small manner, through the Central Whidbey Lion's Club and the Chamber of Commerce. I had the pleasure of working with Laura Blankenship for a few years through the Lion's club. We were responsible for building a playground and a ramp and things like that at the Farm. He read aloud his report:

MEETING AT GREENBANK March 3, 2007 Dale Zimmerman, 1004N WEST >BEACH ROAD, COUPEVILLE

1. Although I belong or have belonged to several organizations that support the Farm, I speak only for myself and do not represent any other agency. What is the vision of the Farm? Do you just want a business return with no regard to the community? Or can we have both? Can this be a gathering place for the surrounding community that also supports a thriving business community? Do we have other models? I think so i.e. Coupeville and Langley come to mind. I helped the Central Whidbey Lions Club build a playground at the Farm. That went well, however, when we suggested having a picnic shelter next to the area, we were told that this was a business area and not to be a community gathering place.
2. I worked with the Central Whidbey Chamber of Commerce many years and served on the board for a few years. About 15 or 20 years ago we proposed that the Island County Historical develop an off-site area where we could collect and display historic buildings, farm equipment and other artifacts. We already have some of the major historic structures (the 1904 barn and surrounding buildings and farm equipment) on this island. Why not designate an area where these artifacts can be set up and toured by the general public. We are quickly losing these treasures and the Farm seems to be the ideal place to save them for future generations.
3. From my perspective, the current vision of this Farm seems to be constrained - Already it is a very special place, a place for trails, livestock, forests, wild birds and animals, even an organic farm. However, we could be so much more. We could be the destination point for people of the island as well as visitors. The merchants at Greenbank as well as support businesses would all benefit from & vision that was not constrained by the past bias toward a business only facility.

Tom Shoiler: said I am a local agricultural businessman, I have a bee ranch. Nine months ago I talked to Jim Patton about renting five acres of land at the Farm to grow a plant to help my bees because they need pollen. I would like to bring more bees on Whidbey Island; I am the only pollinator within a fifty mile radius. I never got a price or anything else from the Board. I did at one time want to grow Canola but Canola is not a good honey crop. Honey is part of a crop of my business and I have to have a good plant that produces a good honey and good pollen. I found a crop called Sanfoin. I went to the Greenbank Farm Management Group (GFMG) Board to ask if I could plant it and the Board said No. I asked them why and they said one source said it could be invasive. I went subsequently to the University of Washington and went through lists of all of the noxious weeds and it is not on the noxious weed lists. I had a print out and showed it to the guy that runs the Loganberry patch. He got very interested, looked it up and thought it was very good. The University of Montana and Wyoming are both promoting it. There are a lot of doctor's that said it is non-evasive but when I tried to talk to the GFMG Board again they said that they were not interested in hearing anything I had to say. I asked the Board one month ago to give me one document that said that Sanfoin is an evasive or bad crop and have not heard anything back. Richard Turner went to talk to Cheryl Sagmeister, the Farm Manager, and asked that same thing and asked for a response by Wednesday and they did not respond to his request. I don't know why I am not allowed to grow this crop when there is no scientific information that it is evasive or noxious.

Ron Muzzall: said I am a local Island County farmer and I want to say two things: one is regarding local agriculture and bio-diesel. At this point in time, we seem to be making great progress in making Island, Skagit and Snohomish a designated a canola free zone because of the pollination issues with the brassica. That is something you'll have to take into account. The second thing is about the Lupien Field air park. That is an interesting conundrum and one that we have been involved in for a number of years because its east end terminates on our property. It is an understatement to say that the ownership is a mess. It is an interesting project, which would be a huge project because it has fallen into such huge disrepair. It is completely surrounded by farm land, which makes it somewhat amenable for remaining an airpark and that's the zoning that the County has tried to protect. It also lies just outside of the school district boundaries, which means that you would have to ask the landowners to pay more taxes - which most of us dearly love to do.

Linda Riley: said I am a Greenbank resident who has a business located at the Greenbank Farm and I have been part of the pea patch for almost five years. I have a real concern to see this community thrive - I love it here. I want to see it thrive in a way that benefits everybody - the land, the creatures that live here and us. I would love to see the bees come. For us to have our own local honey would be a really good thing. I know there are some concerns about it - I am allergic to bees - but there are bees at the Farm anyway at the pea patch and I am fine with that. The thing that I really want to talk about and something that I am very concerned about is disaster preparedness. We have seen in this country that if we have a major disaster anywhere, you can't quite count on the government. I think that each community will have to take care of their own. I read in your wonderful report that you are thinking of designating the Greenbank Farm as storage for supplies for disaster preparedness and I would like to know how far along that has come, when you are going to do it, what can we as a community do to contribute to that and how can we inform the community about this. I think it has to be done sooner than later. Thank you.

Don Sherman: said I am a Coupeville resident and former Port Commissioner and I was one of the Port Commissioners when the Greenbank Farm was acquired back in 1997. One of the things that we struggled with at the time was having that much farm land when it was the Port's primary purpose to support and enhance economic development and tourism. I think that we found a way with the Greenbank Farm to be able to align that with the commercial side and all of the work that has been done there. I would encourage the Port to continue to look when you start getting into true conservation measures, easements and that sort of thing. I really don't know how that aligns with the purpose of Port Districts. I am sure that you have already looked into that to make sure that that is alright to do with Port owned properties. I am not saying that your thought is a bad thing; I am just not sure what that means. As far as the agriculture pieces, we farm at Ebey's prairie and a lot of things are changing. I do like the fact that the Port is interested in being a part of hopefully finding some solutions for the future. Local markets are going to be critical in the future and commodity agriculture really is not the future in our view - Agri-tourism is important. Fee simple ownership of farmland - I have reservations about pressing too much into that area. You have the Greenbank Farm and have some experience about what that means. I think it would be important to have some conversations with the National Park Service regarding their successes or failures of their acquisitions of fee simple land and what their future plans are with properties that they own. Another critical consideration is with the brassica, bio diesel or genetically or altered form of rapeseed. We do grow hybrid cabbage here and we have to be very careful. That has been a very good crop in our area and we have to be sure from a cross pollination point that we are not contaminating that. I know that there is talk now that there is so much interest in the bio diesel, in looking at actually having brassica districts and trying to make sure that people in that area are being respectful and not hurting other crops. This is an area that you need to put a lot of thought into down the road if the Port becomes involved with it in some way. I want to acknowledge the Port Commissioners and all of the people that have been working on the Comprehensive Plan. We've spent some time over the years participating in one way or another with Island County and I know it is a huge undertaking but it looks pretty good for the first run through - thanks for all of your hard work.

Richard Turner: said I have a pea patch at the Greenbank Farm as well as I take care of the loganberries and we are attempting to increase market gardening there. One of the things I have noticed is that the historical uses of the farm have varied. It was a dairy farm, at one point they grew beans, currents and loganberries. I have run into some parts of the community that does not seem to like change and unfortunately we have to change our agricultural practices to get with the times and with the environment. I do know that the way we have grown loganberries in the past has to change. It has gotten drier in the summer on central Whidbey Island, there is not as much rain, so we have to be willing to look at other crops and not be stuck in the past for our agricultural practices. In addition, we should continue to look at doing the organic gardening to maintain the lifestyle that we have without depleting the soil. Part of that is bringing in new crops. There are new legumes being developed all of the time and I would like to encourage the Port to really keep an open mind about the agricultural issue and to get resources necessary to make decisions. There are a lot of really good people in the Western United States that can give us information and we need to avoid using poor information to make our agricultural decisions because it will affect us for a very long time. I have been speaking with Linda Riley about disaster planning and we really need to have some local agriculture because it keeps us a little bit self sufficient as well as it improves the economy - I know Payless has organic food. We have 90 acres that we can work with there, currently there are about 23 acres leased and there is a lot more we can do there. We need to look at all possible crops with keeping in mind environmental concerns. We have got to avoid fear and poor information getting involved in any of our decision making processes.

Kit Turner: said I only heard about the problem Tom was having with the bees last week. In 1996 we were approached on the plan to purchase Greenbank Farm and we made a donation and if you see in the beginning of the plan it says 'as use as a living historic farm, scenic and environmental park and community center.' One of the pitches was use for sustainable agriculture, family farming, farmer's market and co-op and cottage businesses. I really feel that we should keep an open mind. If some one person says that something isn't right, follow the trail and find out absolutely the scientific processes that go into it - perhaps that one person may be misinformed.

Weber closed the public input session. She thanked everyone for attending the meeting and said if there is anything else that you would like the Board to be aware of, please send it in writing or e-mail to the Port. The record will be kept open until March 31, 2007. Patton said that the Port has copies of the compete draft Comprehensive Plan available to anyone who would like one. They will also be available at the Port Office.

ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, Weber adjourned the meeting at 2:52 pm.