Letters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor | City comp plan update lacks historic preservation element
Accuracy… Equity… and Transparency…
It’s what we expect from City Government. It’s what I’d expect of Staff’s 2024 update of the Comprehensive Plan that is used to guide our community for the next 20 years.
Yet when I testified at two recent Planning Commission meetings, sent multiples letters and made countless calls to Staff about what I consider to be glaring errors in the Draft Plan, I was told “it’s too late to make changes,” and the Planning Commission believed them. Staff said the Draft has already been sent to the State. So why is the City still asking for public input?
For decades, the only reminder of Gig Harbor’s indigenous history was a 28-ft “folk-art” totem pole that Wes Ulsh erected at his home along Pioneer Way. Worse yet, the City’s 2015 Comprehensive Plan and every plan before it had NO mention of Native Americans at all!!
That was a big mistake. And to the City’s credit, Native Americans are now acknowledged over 30 times in the latest Draft.
But you know what omission is equally offensive? There is NO reference to any other ethnicity in the entire document. There is no “Historic Preservation Element” in the Plan.
Not one word about the Croatians, the Scandinavians, nor other Euro-Americans that named and built this town. No mention of the boatbuilders, the commercial fishermen, the loggers, the farmers, the grocers… not a one.
That too is a big mistake.
Memorializing this error in Gig Harbor’s 2024 Comprehensive Plan is irresponsible, particularly when a single paragraph that describes Gig Harbor’s past would provide accuracy, equity and transparency.
There are two Council Study Sessions (3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, December 4 and Thursday Dec. 5) advertised that request public input. They say: “any proposed changes should be offered early in the process to be considered…” Only Council can direct Staff to fix their mistake. What do you think?
Lita Dawn Stanton
Former City Historic Preservationist from 2006 to 2015
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