Manson Community Council gives recommendations on Comp Plan

MANSON – The Manson Community Council will submit their comments and recommendations to the county regarding the Manson/Chelan County Comprehensive Plan. Two major comp plan sections the council reviewed were the Plan Development and Master Planned Resort.

“What we’ve been asked to do is to put our changes in writing of what we want and a reason for wanting those changes and then submit that to the county. Then they will look them over and review them … then it gets down and voted on,” said council member Kathy Blum.

Council chairman Chris Willoughby explained the current Plan Development has a lot of “loopholes,” instead the council wants a basic plan for developers to follow. “By striking the Plan Development it doesn’t mean that they can’t do some of these things, it just means they have to request a variance to be allowed to do some of those things that are in the Plan Development section … so it doesn’t allow for these developers to come in and use the Plan Development to do things in a sneaky way,” said Willoughby.

On the Master Planned Resort section, the council recommended to the county for a proposed MPR to have a setback of at least 1,000 feet from any bordering parcel or residential dwelling. The landscaping of the setback should “offer reasonable privacy and noise limiting barriers,” and should not be developed in a way that it would intrude the boarding residences of the MPR.

The updates to the Comprehensive Plan will be sent to County Commissioners and they will finalize all updates by September.

“I was originally approached by Kathy to be on the council and I agreed to do six months stay to help get things back on track,” said Willoughby as he announced his resignation from the council as chairman. His six months as a council member are coming to do an end, he explained he has other personal commitments coming up he needs to take care of. “I will be at the April meeting, but after that, I will be a participant in the audience,” he said.

Willoughby leaves a council position open which means the Manson Community Council is looking to appoint someone to fill in the position by majority vote. Anyone who is interested in the position contact a council at www.mansoncommunitycouncil.com/contact/.

The council will be looking into appointing a new council member during the next regular meeting on April 16.