Yellow Pages
ANACORTES — Library borrowing agreements, next year’s budget, a 1 percent tax increase, city building codes and changes to the plan used to manage the community forest will be discussed tonight at the City Council meeting.
The council is poised to take action on proposed plans to manage the city’s parks and the Anacortes Community Forest Lands. Both are listed on the “consent agenda,” the part of the meeting agenda that is generally approved without discussion.
Proposed changes to the forest management plan have drawn fire from various forest users, including motorcyclists, climbers and dog walkers, who seek to prevent the restrictions that would be imposed by passage of the draft plan.
Local environmental groups that support the plan say the proposed restrictions are needed to protect the 2,800-acre forest.
Additionally, the council is poised to adopt Mayor Dean Maxwell’s $38 million budget for 2010 and a 1 percent bump in the city’s property tax. Next year’s proposed budget is lower than this year’s budget of $45.3 million because the city has postponed street projects and other capital expenses, and has not filled vacant positions.
The council also will hold a public hearing on recommendations made by the Planning Commission about proposed changes to the city’s building and zoning codes.
Among the proposed changes the commission recommended are a ban on future parking lots in the Old Town Neighborhood, the cultivation of low-impact development standards, and encouragement of building residential units above the first floor in the city’s historic downtown.
The commission has recommended the council postpone for a year a few of the more controversial proposals, such as design standards for retailers in the downtown business district and a new residential zone that could bring higher density to the eight-square-block residential area of North Maple Grove.
The council also will discuss a proposed agreement between the Anacortes Public Library and the library in Mount Vernon to allow most patrons of both libraries to borrow books and other materials from the other. The city already has similar library agreements with Burlington and La Conner. Action would be scheduled for a future meeting.
