PORT ORCHARD — The Kitsap County Board of Commissioners took another stride on the long road that will eventually lead to completed 2003 comprehensive plan amendments this week.

Commissioners, county residents and Department of Community Development staff members met Nov. 10 at a public hearing in Port Orchard to discuss the much-anticipated document.

The comp plan establishes rules and regulations for land use and development within the county. Kingston’s Urban Growth Area and other site specific issues in North Kitsap are under consideration.

At Monday’s meeting, commissioners officially closed the oral testimony portion of the hearing as it pertains to Kingston’s UGA population allocations. Written testimony was accepted until Nov. 14.

Redrawing the lines for the UGA has been in the works for more than a decade. The plan was ready to be sent to the commissioners for deliberation earlier this year when the idea of new population allocations for the UGA was introduced. The approval process was then delayed as the DCD staff and planning commission conducted further studies on the impact of the new allocation. In June, the planning commission forwarded its revised UGA plan to the county commissioners for approval.

At their Nov. 17 hearing, county commissioners will begin deliberations on the UGA and site specific properties in the North End proposed for rezones, said Laura Dittmer, manager of community planning within the county’s Department of Community Development.

Another parcel of land in the North End in question is George’s Corner in Kingston.

The county has proposed to rezone the commercial retail property as a Limited Area of More Intense Rural Development or LAMIRD. The purpose of a LAMIRD is to define a permanent boundary in which to limit the amount of development within a rural area.

Kitsap County Commissioner Chris Endresen said she wanted to defer the issue until the 2004 comp plan amendment talks.

Endresen qualified her statement by noting that the LAMIRD issue needs to be reviewed by a citizens’ committee, including representatives from the Kingston Citizens Advisory Committee, the county planning commission and the Suquamish Tribe.

“It will draw a permanent boundary,” Endresen said. “It will take the guess work out of what is next to George’s Corner, so it won’t sprawl. We won’t have commercial property from George’s Corner to Kingston.”

The commissioners will hold their next public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Presidents’ Hall at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds.

Endresen said commissioners plan to make several statements on the Kingston UGA at the Monday meeting.

She also said they are planning to propose to rezone the Arborwood property in Kingston as an urban reserve. By putting it in urban reserve, the land would be marked for possible inclusion in the UGA in the future. The property is located east of Miller Bay Road and South of West Kingston Road.

“It’s better for the environment and it will make a nicer plan,” Endresen said.