Taxpayers call for purchase of Lily Point

By Meg Olson

At their annual general meeting the Point Roberts Taxpayers Association regained momentum as the green party of Point Roberts, the membership strongly endorsing an active pursuit of the acquisition of Lily Point to preserve as open space and public water access.

The topic for discussion at the June 17 meeting was conservation and development, but members aimed their focus at the kind of development they did not want to see and the kind of conservation they did.

“We definitely don’t need a cellular phone tower here,” John Hammell said. Hammell was one of two of the 40 members and guests attending the meeting who volunteered to join the board. Current board member Suzanne Rosser, who will be the group’s new treasurer, agreed. “I’m against a tower from Verizon for political reasons,” she said, referring to a USA Today report May 10 the company had provided records of customers domestic phone calls to the National Security Agency. Verizon has issued a statement denying the claim.

Association president Michael Rosser steered the discussion to the acquisition of Lily Point, a goal the membership has endorsed in years past but not actively pursued. “Our organization has not taken that on specifically in terms of raising money and it sort of needs to come to that,” he said.

County parks director Michael McFarlane and planning and development director Hal Hart were guests at the meeting.

McFarlane said preserving Lily Point as a park or open space was part of the county’s parks plan, but that the county was not in a position to “just walk in and buy it.” He said he had started discussions with the Whatcom Land Trust and the Trust for Public Lands, looking for a non-profit to partner with the county, but added local financial support would need to be part of the mix. “The cost is too much for them to take on individually,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of community support. If you really want to do it it takes a group sitting down and getting all the players together. It is on the county’s list for acquisition but it will require a partnership.”

Association members asked Hart if local development was paying to support local parks and open space, and he answered the county was now considering a parks impact fee for that purpose. “We’re considering it because of the rapid growth throughout the county,” he said. “We’re looking at it for transportation and recreational amenities.”
Hart said the county was considering a $1,000 per residential unit impact fee that would need to be spent in the community it came from within six years. “The concept is you bring it in and leverage it for federal funds,” he said.

Hart said county executive Pete Kremen in his budget message emphasized the county needed to focus on “how to balance conservation and growth.”

John Lesow said there should be dollars from north of the border to acquire local parks. “How much are the Canadians going to kick in?” he asked. “Canadians are going to use it.”

Rosser said that while “the pricetag continues to go up,” they had estimated it would cost every taxpayer $400 to buy the western portion of Lily Point. “We could tax ourselves $20 a year. There’s no question this can happen.”

An agency to take on a lead role in pursuing the acquisition and a fundraising mechanism were the two missing pieces, Rosser said. “Without fundraising it’s not going to happen,” he said. “The role of our group is advocacy and we’ve been doing that for a long time.” He suggested a group should be formed to direct fundraising efforts and asked for suggestions about how to raise funds. Madeleine Anderson suggested a program where donors could “buy Lily Point one square foot at a time,” similar to buying a brick to support a public building project.

Hal Hart said Point Roberts could look at the model established by the Lummi Island and San Juan Island land trusts. “What they’ve slowly been able to do is purchase some key properties for open space, one fundraiser at a time with matching funds,” he said.

John Lesow made a motion the association request the Point Roberts Parks and Recreation District “actively pursue” the purchase of Lily Point for a park. “We have the mechanism in place,” he said. “We have a parks district but they just don’t like to buy parks.”

There was strong support for his suggestion, but questions about whether it reflected wider community support. “It is important we show unity, that the community wants this,” said Sylvia Schonberg. “We have to go to these big organizations and it seems our parks board should be doing that. When we tried to do this 20 years ago we were told the community wasn’t united.”

Some audience members suggested a survey to gauge public support. “You put it on the ballot, that’s your survey,” said Lesow, suggesting if the community would support a levy to move the acquisition forward it was strong indication of support. “In our organization there is a willingness to tax ourselves,” Rosser said.

McFarlane said if the local parks district would take on the role of lead agency for the project, it would save having to come up with another group. “They can bring everyone to the table and it would be a partnership,” he said. “I think it would be good because you already have it in place.”

Association board member Derek Yip Hoi suggested they give the parks district a time limit to act on their request. “Make this a priority so it doesn’t fall off the table,” he said. “If they don’t act on it we can pursue a land trust or other option.”

Lesow’s motion carried unanimously.

Association members asked for more county help in preserving the treed character of the Point as development occurs. “I seems like we came up with a really good plan to preserve the trees but no one’s paid any attention to it,” Schonberg said, referring to tree retention provisions in the Point Roberts Subarea Plan, part of the county code. For example, she said, she understood that there was to be a treed buffer along Tyee Drive but the property owner had cleared the trees just south of the port of entry.

“There are certain limits. They can cut trees down and if they exceed those they would be talking to the county forester,” Hart said, adding that it was a new position in his department focused specifically on trees. Regarding Tyee Drive he said it was not a regulation that property owners retain the trees bordering on the road, “but it’s a goal the entrance should remain treed.” He added the code could be amended to make trees along the roads a requirement.

“We write a great plan but the problem is meeting those goals,” Rosser said. “If you’re seeing a violation the process is there. Report it,” he urged members. “I think of enforcement sort of like tough love education.

Association members unanimously approved a motion to apply for modifications to the tree retention ordinance that would require buffers along the roads, require permits for tree removal and performance bonds to compel replanting where mandated.

Rosser closed the meeting by looking at the bigger picture of ecological challenges faced worldwide: “The bottom line is if it’s going to change it’s going to start here in small organizations. It’s going to start at the bottom and go up.” He also urged anyone wanting to get involved in the association to go to www.pointrobertstaxpayers.com.