Silverdale dubbed 'regional center of growth'

The “community” of Silverdale is becoming more and more like a “city” every day.

Local movers and shakers have been taking steps to define the unincorporated area as a significant and sizeable “urban growth area” within the county, and has won support from the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council.

“The move could free-up federal money for roads,” said Mary McClure, KRCC executive director.

The KRCC is an advisory committee to the larger Puget Sound Regional Council on land use, public works, transportation, parks and other issues. The KRCC met Tuesday, June 3, and issued a resolution/recommendation describing downtown Silverdale as a “regional center of growth” or city-like community.

If this positive recommendation is accepted by the PSRC and passed by Kitsap County commissioners, the new definition may empower Silverdale — via the PSRC — to apply for federal funds to fix roads, such as the awkward interchange at State Routes 303 and 3 (Waaga Way), north of Silverdale. As well as awkward throughways east-west across town.

Cross-town drivers often cut through parking lots.

The PSRC is an advisory body similar to the KRCC, but it oversees a much larger area — King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties — and has more clout with the federal government, said McClure.

She wasn’t sure when the PSRC will decide on the matter — “Some time in the next few months,” she said. And it’s not certain how much, if any, federal funds are available.

According to the KRCC resolution:

l The Silverdale UGA “represents the second largest area for population and job development” within the county. And has “significant retail commerce.”

l To promote liveable urban areas, economic development and adequate infrastructure, it is in the “long-term interests of (the county) to designate the Silverdale urban core as a regional center of growth.”

l The county is undertaking a “community-based planning effort,” by the CK Community Council (CKCC) and planners in the Department of Community Development (DCD), to achieve “early and continuous public involvement.”

Central Kitsap Commissioner Patty Lent has been pushing for such recognition for months, and has said in past interviews that one of her primary concerns is the SR 303/SR 3 interchange. She is also backing CKCC’s efforts to form a Community Campus center and tentative borders for future “city limits.”

All such efforts encourage the PSRC, county, state and the federal government to take Silverdale more seriously in its efforts to grow, said local movers and shakers.

At a May CKCC meeting, Darryl Piercy, assistant director of the county’s Department of Community Development (DCD), presented a “downtown” map of Silverdale, drawn to include the highest density of both retail and residential. He described it as the “center” of the UGA that is Silverdale.

All cities or UGAs with more than 12 “residential/business units-per-acre” in their downtowns are eligible for a favorable recommendation by the KRCC. Silverdale’s 1.5 square-mile downtown has “11.5” — but Lent had said this should be close enough, and it was.

Lent could not be reached for further comment by deadline.

The CKCC and DCD have looked at Silverdale in many ways. A potential maximum size had borders stretching from Poulsbo city limits in the north, to Bremerton city limits south, to the Hood Canal west.

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