Volume 2: Draft Gorst Planned Action Environmental Impact Statement

GORST PLANNED ACTION EIS | AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT, SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS, AND MITIGATION MEASURESGMA requires early and continuous public participation during the preparation and adoption of comprehensiveplans and development regulations, including subarea plans. Public participation procedures that are described inthe procedural rules (WAC 365-196-600) include broad dissemination of proposals and alternatives, opportunityfor written comment, public meetings after effective notice, provision for open discussion, communicationprograms, information services, and consideration of and response to public comments. See Chapter 2 of this DraftEIS for a description of public participation opportunities associated with the Gorst Creek Watershed Framework &Characterization Plan and Gorst Subarea Plan.Urban Growth AreasCounties and cities must create comprehensive plans, and counties must designate UGAs—areas characterized byurban development or adjacent to areas characterized by urban development. Designated UGAs shouldaccommodate future urban growth; services and facilities and their areas should be available or planned tosupport future urban growth. All cities must be within UGAs; unincorporated land within UGAs must be urban incharacter or adjacent to such lands. Under GMA, the preferred urban service providers in UGAs are cities.Lands outside of UGAs are to be designated as rural or resource lands of long-term commercial significance such aslands used for forestry activities. In general, urban development is not to be permitted on these lands and alldevelopment must be rural in character.Within the watershed there are urban lands including McCormick Woods that was annexed to the City of PortOrchard from the McCormick Woods UGA. Also, the City of Bremerton limits contain the SKIA with the BremertonNational Airport and lands designated for industrial and commercial use surrounding the airport. The Gorst UGAcontains lands that are characterized by urban development, having lands with intensive commercial developmentas well as single family lots of a suburban character.Gorst is an unincorporated community under the management of Kitsap County, and its UGA was established in1998. Kitsap County has associated the Gorst UGA with the City of Bremerton, meaning the City of Bremerton isthe designated future service provider for the UGA and may annex it.Areas in between the Bremerton and Port Orchard city limits and the Gorst UGA are designated as RuralResidential and Urban Reserve with 5 and 10 acre minimum lot sizes, respectively. Urban Reserve areas are to beconsidered in future UGA expansions if needed to support population growth. However, prior to expanding a UGA,Kitsap County would need to demonstrate that there was insufficient capacity and that reasonable measures toincrease the capacity for urban growth within existing UGA boundaries have been taken.Population and Employment EstimatesGMA requires the Washington State Office of Financial Management to prepare population forecasts, high,medium, and low, for counties. Counties have a responsibility to allocate population in consultation with cities. InKitsap County, future growth is based on population distributions recommended by the KRCC, which is composedof elected officials and planning directors from all city and Tribal jurisdictions in addition to the BOCC and KitsapCounty’s planning director. The population distributions were adopted by the BOCC and ratified by the cities.As established in 2004, the Kitsap County CPPs establish a population target of 331,571 people by 2025 with anassumption of 99,602 added persons between 2000 and 2025. The growth allocated to Gorst UGA was only 73 newpersons for same 25 year period. As a result of the County’s 2006 Comprehensive Plan Update, the Gorst. UGA wasexpanded west of Sam Christopherson Road to add capacity for the additional growth. As a result of expanding theUGA single family homes and lots created pre-GMA were included, adding residents once in the rural area into theUGA.In 2012, Kitsap County conducted a UGA Resizing and Recomposition Remand and amended its ComprehensivePlan with an updated base year of 2010 and a horizon year of 2025. The new 2010 base compared to the 2025allocation meant that the net population growth would be 76 persons, meaning that there slightly fewer personsDraft | June 2013 3-239