Seeing more affordable housing built and developing a plan to fix flooding on Bay Street are among the top projects Port Orchard Mayor Rob Putaansuu wants to advance in 2025.

Completing the $10 million City Hall renovation and updating infrastructure are also on the mayor’s “To Do” list.

While there is no shortage of apartment buildings and expensive residences being built around Port Orchard the city lacks moderately priced homes, Putaansuu said. “The traditional construction in our community has been apartments and large homes that not everybody can afford,” he said.

More affordable homes are expected to go on the market late next year in McCormick Urban Village, the mayor said. The city worked with developer McCormick Communities LLC to get suitable zoning along Old Clifton Road, adjacent to McCormick Village Park. The community will have over 350 units over 22 acres.

It will feature more modest square footage homes with affordable pricetags, Putaansuu said. Four- and six-plexes and cottage-type homes less than 1,800 square feet are among the options. Some will come with an additional 550-square- foot carriage-style accessory dwelling unit while others will have a shared backyard, the mayor added. “This will diversify the city’s housing stock. It ensures that people can afford to live here and not necessarily be living in an apartment,” he said.

Streets in McCormick Village feature a European-style design called “Woonerf,” which translated means “living street.” “These streets are fairly common in Europe but will be new to our community. They are narrower and more pedestrian-friendly,” the mayor explained.

Putaansuu believes the development will provide opportunities for younger people to live in Port Orchard, particularly those who work across Puget Sound in Seattle.

“We’ve been blessed with the fast ferry and that connection to Seattle,” among other options, he said. “Of course, we want to see more and more younger adults staying and live in our community.”

City Hall

Overhaul of City Hall is expected to be completed in the first quarter of the new year. The building, built in 1999, was in need of repairs, he said. “We were getting water intrusion around our windows. Our siding was failing, and the roof was at the end of its life.”

He said it would cost $40 million to replace City Hall, but $10 million will give it a nice facelift. “It’s no different than your home. You need to replace your roof when it starts leaking or the windows and siding when they are failing. You have got to maintain things that you build. If you don’t, then you have to completely rebuild them.”

Building improvements include solar panels to power 30% of the building’s energy needs. Upgrading City Hall also allowed officials to make the building compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. “The ADA really wasn’t a thing when we built City Hall 20 years ago. We had customer service counters that weren’t conducive to serving those with disabilities. The major service counters were redone to make them so that we’re able to serve citizens with disabilities.”

Redesigning police headquarters was also done. “Our police department has doubled in size. Someday we’re going to have to build a separate building for our police, but that wasn’t in the cards yet. We reconfigured that space to serve the needs of our police department for the next seven to ten years,” Putaansuu said.

Police chief Matt Brown reports the remodel has been beneficial. “A few walls were removed to create a space for officers to have a squad room. Other space was reconfigured to give additional space for professional staff.”

Bay Street

Moving forward on reconstruction of Bay Street – the main thoroughfare through town that regularly suffers flooding – will be another focus. The up to $9 million project involves elevating the heavily traveled street to prevent traffic interruptions from water over the roadway. Putaansuu expects design work to be completed in 2025 with construction starting in spring of 2026. “Bay Street between City Hall and Frederick Street floods virtually every November. We dodged a bullet this year. We didn’t have heavy rains when we had the king tides, but that’s not the norm,” the mayor said.

Once completed, Bay Street will be a foot and a half higher to guard against sea level rise. Overhead utilities will be underground. Storm, water and sewer utilities will be upgraded. Reconstructed traffic lanes will have slower speed limits. Sidewalks will be wider, and lighting will be improved.

The project could be completed in six months or twice that, the mayor said. “If we can close the road for three months, we can get it done in six months. If we don’t close the road, and we keep it open, even with one-way traffic and flaggers, this project could take 12-14 months,” he said.

Putaansuu is contacting business owners to get their positions on whether to close. “In initial discussions I’ve had with downtown businesses, the handful I’ve talked to say they want it done as quickly as possible. We still have some outreach to do before making a final decision.”

Marina pump station

An $18 million rebuilding of the marina sewer pump station is expected to finish this summer. The facility is located largely below ground next to Kitsap Bank. Work began in early 2024.

“We’ve got all these plans for downtown and redevelopment of our downtown. It’s important to get this underground infrastructure built so we can build things on it and around it,” Putaansuu said.

The pump station’s holding vault is three stories below sea level and located in the lowest point in the city. Effluent from around Port Orchard travels to the station before it is sent to the South Kitsap Water Reclamation facility in Annapolis.

“The marina pump station was built fifty years ago. It was becoming functionally obsolete,” the mayor said. The updated facility will have more capacity and be equipped with a generator to ensure the station will operate in a catastrophic event, such as an earthquake or storm that takes out power.

Port Orchard courtesy photo McCormick Urban Village, being built adjacent to McCormick Village Park, will feature European-style “woonerf” streets similar to the one in this rendering, per city officials.