The Port Townsend City Council and Planning Commission are reviewing a proposal to rezone a section of the historic Camas Prairie Golf Park for residential development. 

The proposal was presented to the City Council and Planning Commission at a joint meeting on Dec. 9 as one of several potential amendments to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, outlined in the planning department’s proposed preliminary docket.  

“Based on the lease that council and the Friends of the Golf Park signed late last year, council has directed staff to look at what steps would be necessary to create housing on the parcel on Blaine Street that is part of the Camas Prairie Golf Park,” said Adrian Smith, the city’s long-range planner, during a Dec. 12 meeting of the planning commission. “A first step of developing housing there would be rezoning that property from parks to a zone that allows residential uses.”

“Council has directed us to look at if a rezone makes sense during this Comprehensive Plan,” Smith said. “That’s one of the items that will appear on the preliminary docket for you to make a recommendation on either way for council to decide if it should be approved as part of the preliminary docket.” 

If eventually approved, the rezoning would apply only to the 9.3-acre southernmost parcel of the 58-acre golf course across Blaine Street from Mountain View Commons. 

The rezoning has long been an item of contention in Port Townsend, at least since the city signed a lease with the Friends of the Golf Course last December, which included the city’s intention to develop housing on the property, requiring the rezoning and eventual redistribution of holes across the golf courses’ reduced acreage. 

The language regarding what type of housing could be build on the parcel was changed from “affordable housing” to “a housing development” fairly late in lease negotiations, leading some to cry foul.

Several public commenters spoke at the Dec. 9 meeting or submitted written comments in opposition to the proposed rezoning, believing it would hinder the profitability of the golf park, permanently alter the city’s available open space and fail to address affordable housing needs. 

“This plan is moving quietly forward with breathtaking efficiency. Yet in its public communication so far, the city has buried this topic under generalities about the need for affordable housing, which no one can deny,” said Linda Sullivan, a Port Townsend resident at the meeting. “Conversion of public park land and recreation space to private housing is highly unusual, yet Port Townsend is chugging along in a dense form of the comprehensive plan requirements.” 

“This aggressive and tone-deaf agenda — the idea of annexing our community assets for the benefit of a few — is simply not supported by the majority of Port Townsend and Jefferson County citizens,” said Musa Jaman, another city resident. 

The mayor of Port Townsend, David Faber, has been an advocate for the rezoning and development of the parcel. 

“The reason the golf course has been a target was that it’s very central, city-owned land. The golf course could change and shift a little bit and still operate as a nine-hole golf course, and we can potentially put in a pretty significant number of housing units,” Faber said during an interview with The Leader in June. “The golf course location is so perfect, because if it’s going to be for lower-income people, it’s also directly across the street from the food bank and other public services and the YMCA with childcare services. It’s walking distance to the co-op in Uptown. Then we’re not facilitating sprawl.”

The mayor reconfirmed those comments on Dec. 16.

In the next few weeks, the city will analyze the scope and feasibility of each amendment to the Comprehensive Plan. 

The planning commission will meet again on Jan. 9 to hear more information from the planning department, before it conducts a public hearing on the amendments on Jan. 23. 

The commission will then recommend to the city council what amendments to pursue. 

The city council will adopt the final docket of the chosen amendments in December 2025, said Emma Bolin, the city’s director of planning and community development. The city council could also postpone certain amendments to a future Comprehensive Plan update cycle.