Dear town residents.

The La Conner Municipal Code is in need of major revision.

Current practice here is to have the planner suggest piecemeal items for the planning commission and town council. He has spent interminable mind- numbing time on sign language, for example. Not exactly the big picture.

A planner-proposed code line to define tiny houses is another example. What is the big, big picture for tiny houses?

Where is the vision? Well, it is in our comprehensive plan – which has general language supporting affordability and neighborhood protection, for example. But those are empty words because no language supporting affordability exists in the Municipal Code of La Conner. There is no concurrency.

Langley’s municipal code does have the words for affordability and the innovation that affordability requires. Their code reads like a morph between code and a comprehensive plan – highly readable, considering.

Google Langley municipal code and see what a local code to support a vision can actually look like. Look for:

INNOVATIVE PERMANENTLY AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS

Sections:

18.04.010 Authority and purpose.

18.04.020 Affordable housing defined.

18.04.030 Project application requirements and incentives.

18.04.040 Procedures.

18.04.050 Reporting requirements.

18.04.060 Enforcement.

Our code situation is so flawed that it will require more than one or two meetings in September. It needs more than citizens like me to do it. It needs leadership from the town. The council needs to recognize that our municipal code lacks the language to support our comprehensive plan visions.

Linda Talman

La Conner