The Oak Harbor City Council is done taking comments on proposals to create more commercial land in the city, including one request that would lead to a 33-acre shopping center on the south end of the city.

The council held a lengthy public hearing on the issue during their Tuesday meeting, but didn’t make any decisions beyond closing the record. They will discuss the proposals, and possibly make final decisions, at the Dec. 5 meeting.

Judging from the comments the council members made Tuesday, there seems to be differences of opinion among the elected officials about the need to make room for a large retail development.

Council members Larry Eaton and Sue Karahalios seemed very interested in stemming the leak of sales tax dollars off the island by increasing retail business in the city. Presumably, more large retailers in Oak Harbor would lure people to spend their money locally.

“We’re hemorrhaging retail dollars from not only the city, but the whole of Island County,” Eaton said.

Councilman Paul Brewer, however, made it clear that he was against the idea of the shopping center. And he’s not the only one.

The overwhelming majority of residents who spoke at planning commission meetings or submitted written comments were opposed to the prospects of commercial uses on Highway 20 south of Swantown Road. The major concern has been traffic congestion, but many folks also don’t like the aesthetics, the competitition with downtown business, the effect on wildlife, or urban sprawl.

“We need to bring in jobs that provide living-wage jobs,” resident Angie Homola said Tuesday, “and that’s just not going to happen with big-box stores.”

Developer Paul Pazooki’s controversial proposal is to build a large-scale shopping center on Highway 20, south of Waterloo Road. The proposed site is outside of city limits and outside the urban growth area, so he could only build if the city agrees to a comprehensive plan amendment.

Homola reminded the council members that over 200 people showed up at a planning commission meeting to discuss the issue, but not one local resident spoke in favor of the proposed commercial development. The planning commission recommended against granting Pazooki an amendment.

But the tide shifted a little Tuesday. While seven people spoke in opposition to the shopping center, Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce Director Jill Johnson delivered a different message. She surveyed chamber members and found that 60 percent of those who responded supported the expansion of the urban growth area and city limits to provide additional retail and dining opportunities.

Johnson pointed out that the Economic Development Council estimated that the city loses about $76 million in taxable retail sales each year to off-island retailers.

“The loss of tax revenue is only one part of the equation,” Johnson said. “An additional factor is the potential benefit to the local job market and the impact recirculating dollars have on a local economy.”

Eaton also asked Marcia Van Dyke, publisher of the Whidbey News-Times, to speak about the issue of lost retail sales. She discussed a readership survey that showed about 33 percent of readers’ retails dollars are spent outside of the city. Half of the readers shopped at the Cascade Mall in Burlington in the last 30 days.

Pazooki also spoke at length about his plans and why he wants to build in Oak Harbor. He said this “retail leak” is what attracted him to the city, but his figures show that a lot more than $76 million a year is lost to off-island retailers. He explained that there is no site inside the city limits currently where large-scale development can take place.

He argued that traffic concerns shouldn’t be a show-stopper since any problems can be solved during the permitting process.

“Traffic concerns are there. They have to be addressed,” he said. “Right now we’re asking for land-use approval.”

Beyond Pazooki’s proposal, City Development Director Steve Powers discussed six recommendations from the planning commission for comprehensive plan amendments. The recommendations come out of staff’s analysis of the availability of commercial lands as solutions to the 40-acre shortfall.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.