The city of Oak Harbor will seek county grant funds to build an access road to planned future park Harbor Heights at Northeast 16th Avenue and Heller Road.

Council members approved the application for about $2.3 million from the county’s Rural County Economic Development Infrastructure Investment Program in a 5-2 vote April 5, with council members Shane Hoffmire and Bryan Stucky providing the opposing votes.

Hoffmire said in a previous council workshop that he would not support the Harbor Heights project going forward at all unless the access road is at Northwest Elwha Street, a location he said would better protect park-goers from traffic.

“How we ever got moved off of Elwha is baffling to me,” he said in the March 23 workshop.

The issue of where to construct a Harbor Heights park access road has been a subject of much debate over the last year, with Gun Club Road, Elwha Street, and Northeast 16th Avenue all coming before the council for consideration. Most recently, city staff recommended extending Northeast 16th Avenue to Heller Road to provide park access.

“The road will provide access to the Harbor Heights Park and will provide street frontage to 20 acres of County,” city documents about the project and grant proposal say. “The segment of road will not create jobs within 10 years but with the full buildout of the park and extension of this road to Oak Harbor Rd. there will be a regional draw for sporting tournaments which will provide patronage to local businesses and generate tax revenue.”

The total cost to build the Northeast 16th Avenue access road would be just over $3 million. If the city is approved for a rural economic development grant, it will be responsible to provide 25% matching funds.

The project is estimated to take one year and two months and includes construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Heller Road and the Northeast 16th Avenue extension where the park access would be.