City Council February 17, 2026: Utilities, Roads, and Evans Vista
City planning department floats idea to lessen utility costs for urban farms and adopts 2026 Local Road Safety Plan.
PORT TOWNSEND, WA — The February 17 Port Townsend City Council Meeting covered road plans and Evans Vista developers requirements. The city is currently discussing which projects to prioritize and what programs and services to offer within coming developments.
The meeting began with public comments about the importance of having farms in Port Townsend and the difficulty of running a farm in the city. Farms pay higher rates on irrigation water because of the disproportionate impact on utilities than residential rates. Steve King, Director of Public Works, said there will need to be a lot of discussion in the future about the complicated details of farms in the city. He encouraged the creation of a non-potable-partnership with farmers in East Jefferson County for a reclamation system for irrigation.
In email correspondence with the Beacon, King said about the reclamation system, “This has not been explored in any detail. There are options. As an example, one thought that came up in brief at a Water Utility Coordinating Committee meeting awhile back is the creation of a reservoir for additional storage associated with the Olympic Gravity Water System. Currently there is not enough storage to support additional demands, but the addition of storage could change that. This concept has not been studied at all, but is an example of a possibility. The first step would be to commission a study to determine needs, costs, and environmental viability.”
Council adopted the 2026 Local Road Safety Plan Update under the City Safety Program, Pedestrian/Bicyclist Program and Safe Routes to School Program. The City Safety Program received a zero match grant, which doesn’t require the city to use any of their resources to cover three projects, including plans to redesign the Safeway entrance at 12th and Landes with the future of the Haines Place Park and Ride and bus loop in mind.
Other projects will include Lawrence Street safety improvements and Monroe Street crosswalk improvements. The city will be deciding priorities between pedestrian and bicyclist safety projects on Landes Street and Hastings Avenue and 10th Street and 15th Street, and between Walker Street and the Port Townsend High School and Sheridan Street to Landes, but do not yet have secured funding for all of the projects.
Housing Grants Coordinator, Renata Munfrada, gave a presentation on the city’s progress on choosing a developer for the Evans Vista housing project. You can read our deep dive into the Evans Vista project here.
