The city of Oak Harbor has joined a couple of environmental groups and a local environmentalist in appealing an Island County decision regarding expansion of the city’s urban growth area.

The city alleges that the county overstepped its jurisdiction by asserting conditions in a mitigated determination that expanding the city’s urban growth area into 105 acres of the Fakkema Farm and 75 acres elsewhere is not significant to the environment.

“We feel they are asserting authority that I don’t think they have,” Oak Harbor City Attorney Phil Bleyhl said.

But unlike the environmentalists, the city obviously isn’t opposed to the idea of expanding the urban growth boundary, which is the ring of land outside city limits earmarked for eventual annexation into the city.

“We agree with the expansion of the growth area since we asked for it,” City Development Director Steve Powers said.

The city also isn’t advocating that the county be required to prepare a complex and expensive Environmental Impact Statement to determine what impact city expansion would have on the local environment.

Langley-based Whidbey Environmental Action Network, the Oak Harbor-based Swan Lake Watershed Preservation Group and part-time Oak Harbor resident GayLynn Beighton also appealed the county’s mitigated determination of nonsignificance. They feel the county should be required to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement because they believe the expansion of the city, especially into the Fakkema Farm, would have dire consequences for the environment, fish and wildlife.

In fact, Steve Erickson of WEAN said the city’s appeal will actually help his case.

“If the county is saying this will have a significant environmental impact without that mitigation and Oak Harbor is saying they don’t want that mitigation then obviously there will be a significant environmental impact,” he said. “It’s kind of a slam dunk.”

According to Powers, this is the first time the city is attempting to expand its urban growth area. The Oak Harbor City Council approved the 180-acre expansion of the UGA, as part of the comprehensive plan amendment process, and sent it on to the county to render a final decision in its comprehensive plan process.

As part of the process, the county issued the mitigated determination of nonsignificance, which means the county believes the proposed expansion won’t have a significant impact on the environment if certain mitigating conditions are met.

The city has a problem with some of the mitigating conditions, but Powers would not say which ones. Bleyhl, however, said he’s concerned the county is asserting the right to approve or disapprove permits within property annexed into the city.

The mitigating conditions state that the city and county shall amend the interlocal agreement to establish additional procedures for joint review of requests to annex property into Oak Harbor. It states that the city and county will jointly create conditions for development projects in the 180 acres prior to annexation in order to protect the Swantown drainage basin on the west side of the city.

Some of the mitigating conditions are specific to the Fakkema Farm, such as a limit of 352 homes on the 105 acres.

The deadline for the comprehensive statement of appeal is next Friday.

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