Poulsbo ‘State of the City’ spells out big improvements

Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson shared her last State of the City address at the Jan. 15 City Council meeting, outlining the biggest issues facing Poulsbo and her top priorities for 2025.

Erickson, who has said she won’t run again, summarized her plan with the topics “Strong City, Economics and Quality of Life” — “the hallmarks of Poulsbo” — and spelled out benchmarks toward the goals that the council should accomplish in 2025.

“There’s a lot of things we have to do, but even hard things can be seen as joyous,” Erickson said. “I think the goal of everybody in local government is to make the community better off when you’re finished.”

Strong City

“Strong City” began in the residential sector. The affordable housing stock in Poulsbo is growing as the publicly owned Nordic Cottages approach completion, but additional developments could fill other niches, such as addiction-recovery housing, Erickson said. In 2025, lawmakers should identify at least two more locations to build Nordic Cottage-style villages and seek to answer the conundrum of how to create affordability in town.

Erickson encouraged growth in law enforcement as part of her “Strong City” plan. While the department is fully staffed at 16 officers, about four more will be needed in the next few years, she said. Revenue from traffic infraction tickets issued by the new speed cameras on Viking Avenue, plus an additional two cameras coming to the intersection of Highway 305 and Bond Road and near Poulsbo Elementary, should help fund the positions.

“While statistically that is more officers for the size of our city than is normally required, most cities our size don’t have a highway running through it that has 38,000 cars a day, or provide urban services to almost 40,000 people,” Erickson said.

If funds are an issue, the council could consider a public safety levy, the mayor added.

Erickson hopes to make headway on drug enforcement. Last year, Poulsbo police reintroduced K-9 narcotic detection to enhance drug enforcement, hiring Luna the brown Labrador to sniff out illegal substances and weapons. The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office has four drug-detection dogs, but Poulsbo stands out as a city with a specialized K-9 unit.

“Can we convince other agencies to get drug dogs? If every agency in the county had a drug dog, don’t you think that would be a deterrent for those people selling illegal substances?” Erickson asked.

Economics

“Economics” is deeply tied to “Strong City” in Erickson’s plans, particularly in regard to housing. Poulsbo is slated to have about 25,000 residents by 2050, more than double its current population. One way to make housing more affordable in town is to “go high and build small,” she said, meaning the city must incentivize construction of apartment buildings and condominiums.

“It’s a mix of housing that we haven’t had a lot of in the history of the city, but as we continue to grow, people need to live somewhere,” she said.

Also, commerical buildings that are vacant for long periods of time are an eyesore, she said, and become barriers to affordable housing.

“I keep imagining what the city of Bremerton may have looked like if they had that mechanism in place, with the empty buildings they’ve had for years. I’m thinking of what downtown Seattle with their empty office towers. How long are those going to be empty? What are they going to do?” Erickson said. “When we live in a growth management state, where our lands and urban areas are really dear, I think that we should be able to fine people who leave their commercial buildings vacant.”

Erickson also proposed “going high” in support of the local economy by building a parking garage near downtown and implementing paid parking. Poulsbo’s small businesses have become impacted by traffic congestion, she explained, and it’s time that the city fixes that. Funds from paid parking would be used to increase security downtown, an employee parking program and eventually a parking garage.

Efforts to mitigate congestion must work in tandem with higher-density developments around the city, Erickson added. For example, the Oslo Bay apartment complex has 468 units, but its strong transit connections will allow most residents to walk or ride the bus to destinations, keeping cars off the highways.

Road and infrastructure improvements will go a long way toward easing travel through Poulsbo. Erickson calls 3rd Avenue “the goat path” due to its poor condition, and said council should begin renovations in 2025, but the city’s top priority should be finishing the new Public Works facility on Viking Avenue.

Quality of Life

Erickson encouraged the city to look at its “Quality of Life” goals as well. The city has 26 parks in 4.74 square miles, which is “a lot of parks,” she said. However, as the town’s population grows, she sees an opportunity to convert the city’s stormwater management ponds into more developed parks to better serve neighborhoods.

She was firm that the city create a parks and recreation district within the year. Securing sustainable funding is crucial to completion of the Poulsbo Event and Recreation Center, she added.

“Inevitably over time, the city of Poulsbo is not going to be able to afford to continue to grow a robust program as our population grows,” she said. “A metropolitan park district will be a sustainable funding source, so that our parks and our recreation programming can be supported.”

At the regional level, Erickson called for the council to support construction of the Olympic College Allied Health Center; the Western Washington University cybersecurity extension program; a reform to distribution of revenue from Kitsap County’s mental health tax; and changes to the state process for the construction of new clinics.

She also expressed interest in establishing a creative district in Poulsbo. Art can be an economic driver, she said, and abundant public art inspires community pride and makes commercial areas welcoming. Nurturing the arts district also tied into her biggest question of the year: How does the city’s sense of community stay strong, as Poulsbo grows larger than ever?

“We do things like art. We do things like festivals. We do things like fix problems: improve our roads; make sure our sewer system is working the way it should be; make sure our housing construction is good construction,” she said. “As we grow, we grow better. We get better at what we do.”