One Resilient Pie: Bridging Community Dreams and Safety Regulations in Hadlock

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After months of struggle with regulations, Fluttery By is finally ready to serve up its famous pizza. Photo by Angela Downs.  [/caption]

News by Angela Downs

Balance requires tension, but where the tension lies matters. Keeping people safe, the environment healthy, and the people of Jefferson County pursuing their dreams is no easy task, and tensions are often found between the local government and community members.

Community Development Director Josh D. Peters and Building Official/Fire Marshal Phil Cecere are two county workers navigating the complexities of Jefferson County’s history and development. They are team members of The Department of Community Development (DCD) responsible for long-range and current planning for fire life, safety standards, land use approvals, and wildlife protection plans and preventions.

“Local governments have certain authority, but a lot of international building codes are overseen by the state. Some regulations come from the federal level, such as floodplains,” Peters said. Changes are made regularly to codes through the legislative process. Cecere states that freedom comes with responsibility and requires each person to do their due diligence and keep updated with requirements before building.

Mark Ennis is the owner and mind behind the beloved Flutter By Pizza Pie. “Flutter By began as a grill lid found on the side of the road turned into a miniature wood-fired pizza oven that would travel from Bellingham to Olympia during a bike/art/music festival called Mobroll in 2014.” Ennis wrote in an email to The Beacon.

September 2024 marked ten years of heartfelt efforts for Flutter By. “I have always been passionate about the issues we face on the macro/micro levels as humans, and the dedication to addressing these issues through research and blue-collar application across disciplines… this is a practical expression to bring art, design, and food into the community,” Ennis said.

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A faded stop work order on Flutter By’s door. Photo by Angela Downs.  [/caption]

In June of 2024, Flutter By Pizza Pie opened a Port Hadlock brick-and-mortar location. “The concept was to evolve to being in between a brick and mortar and a food truck, with very little debt, use very simple technology and to have everything built to be easily taken apart and moved,” Ennis said.

Trading pizza for locally logged and milled lumber to build a carport to house the outdoor pizzeria, seven different oven prototypes for the space, building foot pump sinks, tables, napkin holders, and more, Mark and his beloved community put their essence into creating a humble, welcoming space. “Each step led to the next, more like writing a poem than building a pizzeria,” Ennis said.

For seven weeks the community got to enjoy the newest iteration of Flutter By Pizza. Then on a slow afternoon in July, they received a complaint for burning in a burn ban in homemade ovens. The building department evaluated and requested a building permit for the timber carport, and the Fire Marshal required oven certifications– including their pizza truck. Ennis replaced the wood-fired oven in the pizza truck with propane ovens and temporarily shut down the Pizza Shop.

Retroactive permitting is a complicated process, and not every community has a policy in place to support course corrections. Retroactive permitting can be considered a rural perk compared to the pressures urban developments feel. “We are lucky to have a path for it,” Cecere said. With new developments, new buyers, and repurposing, Built Without Permits (BWOP) are on the rise, bringing about a lot of surprises and stress for people.

According to state law, the permit center sets “reasonable fees”. Though the DCD must implement policy derived from a legislative process, they are an “enterprise fund,” meaning they rely on that revenue to cover costs and do not have the ability to adjust for individual applications.

“One of the biggest wins of this false start has been that the health department, who originally two years ago did not see the septic system of the Port Hadlock location to be robust enough for a small restaurant, has reexamined the engineering and decided the septic system could support a small restaurant,” Ennis said.

With almost all production happening at a kitchen in Port Townsend, this will simplify a lot for the small team. It will also allow the pizzeria to be open more than three days a week, the limit allowed by their current temporary food service permit.

After investigating the process and costs, Ennis has decided to buy electric ovens, which will be more efficient, consistent, and allow for product experimentation. “The health department has agreed to let me open 3 days a week while I undergo the permitting process and buildout of the commercial kitchen using my current permitting,” Ennis said.

“There is value in helping people achieve their goals,” Peters said. As the county aims to establish landscapes for success, its ultimate concerns are life safety, community vision in the context of rural character, and the integrity of the local ecosystem. It's a weighty job that requires a lot of responsibility, integrity, and follow-through.

“I have been equally blown away by the support of the community and the difficulty of incrementally creating, recreating, and sustaining a small food business in this country/county,” Ennis said. Accruing debt from the changes required, Ennis has applied for loans from the LION network.

If you would like to support the next phase of the Flutter By Pizza Shop, you can find Flutter By Pizza on Facebook and Instagram @flutter.by.pizza.pie

For more information about the DCD, visit: https://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/260/Community-Development

If you’d like to help support Flutter By, you can donate to their GoFundMe here.

Correction: an earlier version used the word “city” when it should have said “county.”