Freeland Chamber of Commerce

The town hall meetings are over, the models have been put away, so let the visioning begin.

Four town hall style meetings designed to update people to the growth issues facing Freeland have wrapped, with about 225 people attending at least one of the meetings and many signing up to work on one of about a dozen committees that will look closely at those issues.
The meetings, held on January 18th and 25th, were designed to get dialogue started on issues ranging from infrastructure to tourism to incorporation.

The town hall-style meetings were presented by the Freeland Vision 2025 committee, which was created by the Freeland Chamber of Commerce and the Friends of Freeland.

Vision 2025 committee president Mike Dolan told the crowd during the last of the four sessions that these meetings were designed to bring up the questions and that, "we're asking you to come up with the answers."

About 25 people have signed up so far for the committees. "Incorporation, Downtown Revitalization, Affordable Housing and Walkability are the top four," says Dolan.

The next stage will be for those who signed up to meet to figure out the basics of how each committee will be structured. Dolan says, "Our plan is to bring all the new volunteers together in two weeks to kick-off the working groups (Freeland Vision 2025 sub committees) efforts."

Anyone wishing to participate on any of the issues presented at the Freeland Hall can meet on Tuesday Feb 7th, 3:30PM at the Cameron Road Fire Station. Or they can contact Dolan at 331-4845 or mjdolan@whidbey.com.

He adds, "The committee has agreed to do several small group presentations using either the library or the Fire Hall (without all our props) over the next several weeks as they can be scheduled in the early evening.

While each of the four meetings had identical agendas, each session's question-and-answer period covered it's own range of issues. Often at the center of those sessions was the idea of Freeland incorporating into a city. Questions ranged from possible drawbacks to the time the process might take.

As in the first week's sessions, those attending had a chance to inspect more than a dozen poster presentations that covered the issues facing Freeland. Three large models offered various views of how Freeland might look in 20 years. They also saw a movie where one nationally recognized planner reminded viewers that they had a choice between, "unplanned change and planned change," but that things were going to change.

Dolan continued that theme of growth, explaining that 200 homes within a two-mile radius of Freeland are either under construction or had construction permits. He added about 100-thousand square-feet of commercial space has been added in the past few years and that another 60-thousand square feet were being planned. He told the group that, "It's up to all of us to decide what our future is going to be."

Along with the next Town Hall meetings, the discussions are already continuing online, through the Freeland Community Forum. The fourm is an on-line discussion that will be a way to keep the discussion alive.

Additional information about the Vision 2025 committee can also be found on-line at www.vision2025committee.com.

Click here.