Commissioners Present:Bruce Bryson and Ann McDonald

Others Present: Jim Patton (Executive Director), Molly MacLeod-Roberts (Edwards & Associates), Tom Baenen (GFMG President) and Donna Keeler, (Master Site Plan Coordinator), and others as identified on the attached attendance list.

Call to Order:The special meeting was called to order at 5:05 p.m. by Commissioner Bryson in the Coupeville Recreation Hall in Coupeville, WA.

Purpose of the Meeting:

Bryson stated that the purpose of the meeting was to provide a briefing to the general public on the process for developing the Master Site Plan for the Greenbank Farm. The Comprehensive Plan 2007-2026, adopted by the Board on May 9, 2007, identified the Master Site Plan as one of the Port's most important projects for the immediate future.The Master Site plan is expected to take more than one year to complete and will incorporate the views of the public to the maximum extent possible.

Bryson welcomed everyone and thanked those who have helped in the Master Site Plan process so far.He stated that public input would be limited to questions, comments and suggestions regarding the planning process. Bryson introduced Executive Director, Patton and gave the floor to Patton, who introduced Donna Keeler, President of Coastline Planning, the person selected by the Board as the Coordinator for the Master Site Plan.

Public briefing: Patton gave a Power Point briefing on the Master Site Plan process (attached to these Minutes and on file in the Port Office). After the presentation Bryson recessed the meeting for a ten minute break at 5:38 p.m.

Keeler's presentation: The meeting was reconvened by Bryson at 5:48 p.m. who then gave the floor to Keeler.

Keeler gave a brief presentation of the planning process, and the composition of the public focus groups (detailed as an attachment to these Minutes). She expected that the focus groups would meet monthly throughout 2008 for 2½ to 3 hours each time.She said that she is looking for groups of 7-10 people to work on each of four components of the Master Site Plan: Environmental Protection, Agriculture, Recreation and Commercial Activities.The components will be integrated towards the end of the year and part of Keeler's role will be to be sure that there is a flow of information and communications between the groups as their work goes on. Keeler asked for volunteers for the focus groups, and asked for those volunteers to note their interest on the attendance sheets.

Public comments: Bryson then opened the meeting to the public for comments and suggestions.

Don Meehan commented that there are a lot of varied activities that currently take place at the Greenbank Farm, and he asked if the Master Site Plan development concept was one of wiping the slate clean and starting over or is it to embrace the existing activities, or is it some combination thereof.

Keeler responded that she didn't imagine any of the activities currently at the Farm would be wiped clean.She said they would be reviewing those activities, determining which seemed to be successful and which activities should be continued.A lot of the activities generate income for the Farm, and that will be taken into consideration.

To further address Meehan's question, Patton noted the issue of there not being enough public restrooms to support events held at the Farm.The Commercial and possibly the Recreational focus groups would discuss how to resolve that issue. He said the Comprehensive Plan advisors had looked at the issue and were interested in the possibility of the Port investing in a new building at the Farm that would be a multi-function building that included restrooms along with adequate office space for the Greenbank Farm Management Group.The focus groups will not look at the Farm's activities with the idea of wiping the slate clean or even with the express idea of adding events.Patton explained the idea will be to determine how best to invest to facilitate events and to improve the buildings and infrastructure at the Farm. As an example, he noted that Island Transit has proposed building a Park & Ride on Wonn Road at the Farm.The decision on that proposal will not be reached by the Board of Commissioners in an ad hoc way.It will instead be another issue for the focus groups to consider and make their recommendations as part of the Master Site Plan.Patton said the Antique Car Club proposed building a museum at the Farm.Again, that proposal would be discussed by the appropriate focus group or groups and would be integrated with other ideas.

Marion Atwood said she had not yet read the Comprehensive Plan, but asked if the Port had included any standards in the Plan for low carbon impact, green buildings like the ones at Bayview where recycled wood and other recycled materials were used.Patton said the answer was Yes, but not in any specific ways.It was left to the Master Site Plan to provide specifics.Patton explained that the Port of Coupeville's Comprehensive Plan was a radical departure from plans submitted by other port districts.The Comprehensive Plan citizens' advisory group suggested that the Board create two templates of equal value.One template emphasized economic development and the other emphasized environmental protection.Every initiative considered for investment had to comply with both templates before it was included in the Plan.The Board approved their suggestion and used it throughout the Comprehensive Plan and intends to utilize the same process for the Master Site Plan. The idea is to balance the idea of environmental protection with economic development concepts.

Atwood said it would be nice to know there were environmental values and goals to be followed across the four focus groups.Keeler said the original idea was to have the environmental protection focus group meet first, but after discussion the Board realized it was important that all the focus groups meet concurrently because there will be issues that will transcend the work of more than one group.Keeler said she was expected that issues like green buildings and low impact development would be incorporated into the Master Site Plan.

Emily Ramsey, a Comprehensive Plan advisor, explained that it was like having two bottom lines - the environmental bottom line and the economic bottom line.Both must be looked at and must balance.

Patton added that the Port of Coupeville's Comprehensive Plan was very well received by the Washington Public Ports Association (WPPA). The WPPA has said they will use the Plan as a model for all of the small ports in the State of Washington.As ports' plans are reviewed and renewed the WPPA will ask them whether they have paid equal attention to environmental protection and economic development.

Rob Harbor asked how the asset inventory process was going.Keeler said she is accumulating information on a lot of different components regarding the Farm, from the Farm level all the way up to the State level.She hopes to produce a draft report by the end of the month for the Board to review.The goal is to have the report finalized prior to the first meeting of the focus groups.

Don Meehan said he would like to make sure that Keeler works with his office (Washington State University - Extension).Keeler said she planned to, and added that in addition to the focus group volunteers, she also plans to have guest advisors.She said Meehan and others from the WSU would best fit into the guest advisor category.The guest advisors would meet with the groups, and provide special presentations or advice and guidance.Keeler said she appreciated Meehan's willingness to volunteer.

Patton asked if there were any more comments from the public, and there were none.

ADJOURNMENT:Bryson closed the meeting to public comments and adjourned the meeting at 6 p.m.