Ebey's Landing Administrative History

Chapter Five:
PREPARING A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

After passage of the reserve's legislation in November 1978, the next two years were vital in the development of the reserve. By the close of 1980, the Smith farm had new owners, and EBLA had a comprehensive plan. But these changes required patience and cooperation. The reserve concept was relatively new, and the guardians of EBLA often had to improvise during the planning phase. Some employees at the National Park Service regional office in Seattle had little knowledge of the new reserve and were even surprised by the legislation. "Park Service in the Dark," the Everett Herald announced, somewhat to NPS embarrassment. Spokesman Gale Brammer admitted that "we really don't have a good idea of how we will manage" Ebey's Landing. Neither, entirely, did the citizens of Whidbey Island. [1]

In the weeks after the legislation passed, the town of Coupeville and Island County sought ways to fund the planning process and prepared an interlocal agreement to establish a citizens' planning committee for the new reserve. They understood that a successful reserve required consensus and full citizen participation in an open planning process. It was important that the local citizenry perceive the reserve as a locally initiated effort. The people who lived and worked in the area, everyone quickly agreed, should create the comprehensive plan for EBLA (to use its NPS acronym). The Island County planning director Sydney Glover and county commissioner Lou Romeo also gathered representatives from the NPS and interested local citizens to discuss how to proceed. [2]

Meanwhile, the NPS in Seattle assembled a multi-disciplinary task force to determine the steps required to complete the plan. [3] Richard Sims of the regional office's planning and compliance division headed the team. To local planners it was apparent that the NPS team was unfamiliar with planning principles or state requirements for comprehensive plans. However, Reed Jarvis, an NPS veteran with ten years' planning experience and at the time assistant superintendent of Olympic National Park, joined a short time later. He not only provided park planning expertise; he also personally represented the Park Service at the reserve, staying on as project manager after the task force had complete its work. Well aware that the reserve was breaking new ground in NPS planning, Jarvis was immediately fascinated with the project. He formed a close working relationship with Coupeville planner Carol Delahanty and Island County assistant director of planning Leonard Madsen. They agreed that Jarvis would assist a citizens' group in creating a conceptual plan, while he simultaneously completed a comprehensive plan based on the committee's decisions. By February 1979, the NPS task force had completed a task directive for the project. It recommended three additional planning phases: surveying and evaluating all historical and natural resources; analyzing and weighing planning alternatives; and preparing the comprehensive plan. Information on historical and natural resources was available, although further studies would be commissioned later. The planners drew upon the Huxley Report, an environmental study of central Whidbey Island, prepared by a Western Washington State College environmental planning class. The report gave the team a resource data base and it discussed protection of important visual areas within the reserve. The rest of the task directive had to be accomplished within the eighteen months allotted by the legislation. [4]