Unlock HolliWalk.

Dear Beloved Community,

We need your help.

The Town is Blocking our development of affordable housing. For the past two years, we have been diligently trying to satisfy the Town of Friday Harbor’s requirements so that we can sell 8 completed homes to homebuyers in our HolliWalk neighborhood who qualify for our program. During that time, the Town has continued to delay, has escalated its requirements, and has refused to record the Binding Site Plan that would allow the residents to buy their homes.

We are asking you to join us in demanding that the Town record the Binding Site Plan to allow HolliWalk residents to purchase their homes, which were completed 2 years ago and which they have been forced to rent rather than own for the past year and a half.

The Town continues its pattern of adding new demands to our site plan, undeterred by a 2024 Hearing Examiner's ruling against this. In December 2023, the Town issued a decision requiring the Home Trust to build additional street improvements as a condition of recording the Binding Site Plan. It took seven months to appeal this decision to an independent Hearing Examiner who ruled that the Town could not add new requirements AFTER they had approved the design of the project, AFTER the project was constructed, and AFTER they inspected and approved the construction. Ignoring the Hearing Examiner’s Ruling and the State laws that he cited in that ruling, the Town issued a new decision in January 2025 requiring the Home Trust to meet more new conditions including providing individual water meters for each home at the cost of more than $70,000 AFTER approving the initial site plan with one meter.

Each step of the way, we have tried to quietly and diligently work with the Town to resolve these issues, make changes, etc. All the while, our homebuyers are losing equity, the Home Trust continues to pay construction loan interest, and our mission to create permanent affordable housing goes unfulfilled.

The Town is blocking our other projects as well. It is not just HolliWalk. We are experiencing a similar pattern of delay and changing requirements on our proposed Argyle Project and our other efforts to create affordable housing. Enough is enough.

If you care about affordable housing for our community, please join us in demanding that the Town record the Binding Site Plan for HolliWalk so that these homes can be sold to their resident buyers. There must be a reset in the Town’s practices so that Friday Harbor can see the permanent affordable housing it so desperately needs and deserves and that our Comprehensive Plan calls for. We are in unanimous support of this effort. Please sign our petition, linked below.

Signed,

Amanda Lynn, Executive Director; Board of Directors Executive Committee: Paul Fischburg, Jim Goetz, Erica Hamlin, Darcie Nielsen; All other Board Members: Adrian Kilpatrick, Bob Anderson, Chris Pope, Cole Arendt, Elliot Burch, Rachel Brooks, Shauna Barrows

What is HolliWalk?

HolliWalk is a permanently affordable residential development made up of 8 homes in four duplexes. These homes are intended to be owner occupied and sold under the Community Land Trust model. HolliWalk was developed by the Home Trust in accordance with a Town-approved Site and Utility Improvement Plan issued under FHMC Ch. 15.06 and the Town of Friday Harbor issued Building Permits.

Project History & Timeline:

  • September 2020: Home Trust initial submission of a Site & Utility Improvements Plan to the Town of Friday Harbor

    • Revised at least 4 times; three of the revisions directly incorporating Town Comments. (10/28/21, 02/28/22, 02/09/23, 03/27/23)

  • December 2021: Home Trust submits application for Building Permits.

  • May 2022: Town issues Building Permits to the Home Trust. Construction of the buildings began immediately.

  • April 2023: Town approves final version of Site & Utility Improvements Plan. This plan included significant frontage improvements to Price Street, but none to Holli Place.

  • May 2023: HolliWalk Development is substantially completed.

  • August 2023: At the direction of the Town, Home Trust submits Binding Site Plan application, which shows the site plan and land use designations.

  • October 2023: Home Trust receives a Notice Of Administrative Decision (NOAD) in response to Binding Site Plan submission. NOAD requires significant additional frontage improvements on HolliPlace that are not on the approved plan. These improvements will cost the Home Trust upwards of $300,000 which was not budgeted or fundraised for, and will significantly impede upon the front porch areas of the homes along HolliPlace, a single lane dirt alley. The Town also issued Temporary Occupancy Permits, allowing the Home Buyers to move in, as several were facing imminent loss of their existing housing.

  • December 2023: Home Trust formally appeals the Town of Friday Harbor NOAD from October 2023 to the Town Council, disputing the additional requirements for frontage improvements on Holli Place being required by Town Staff. The Town Council directs Town Staff to work with the Home Trust in creating a Design Variance to address the issue.

  • March 2024: The Home Trust and Town Staff are unable to reach a meaningful compromise. The Town Staff recommends the waiver of a street light, but no other concessions are offered by the Town. This matrix summarizes the negotiations.

  • May 2024: After two more months of working to negotiate a compromise, the Town again provides the same proposal to the Home Trust; full frontage improvements required to the existing property, with the waiver of a street light. During their May 16th 2024 meeting, the Town Council offered the Home Trust a final settlement to this effect, which the Home Trust did not accept. The dispute escalated to a Hearing Examiner.

  • July 2024: The Home Trust’s appeal is heard by a Hearing Examiner on July 7th. The Hearing Examiner swiftly decides in the Home Trust’s favor on all counts, providing this written decision.

  • August 2024: The Home Trust undertakes a re-grade project and finalizes the landscaping. The specific requirements of these project components relied upon the outcome of the Hearing Examiner decision. The core of the decision was that no new requirements can be added to the approved site plan, thus, the Home Trust continued as planned.

  • October 2024: The Home Trust completes the re-grading and landscaping and submits our final Binding Site Plan application. Town staff acknowledge the submission and let the Home Trust know they wish to review the full packet before performing the inspection.

  • November 2024: Final Inspection takes place at HolliWalk. During the inspection the Town identifies several minor administrative needs which remain on the final checklist. The Home Trust supplied all necessary documentation identified during the inspection.

  • January 2nd 2025: The Town begins their second review after receiving all requested documentation.

  • January 6th 2025: The Town sent an email notifying that our preliminary Binding Site Plan application was approved, and a draft notice of decision which listed many never-before-seen requirements, including changes to our existing landscaping plan, fencing, and, most critically: 8 water meters instead of the single meter and sub meters on our approved site plan, as well as an additional $70,000 in connection fees beyond the connection fees the Town had already charged for the 8 homes, funded with CHIP grants secured by a partnership between the Home Trust and San Juan County.

  • January 9th 2025: The Home Trust digitally submits maps incorporating the minor adjustments and updates requested by the Town in the January 6th letter, but contesting the additional requirements, citing the Hearing Examiner’s decision. In response, the Town offered to set a meeting discussing the additional requirements.

  • January 14th, 2025: The Home Trust receives Final Occupancy Permits and final inspection report, with a request for fees to process the Binding Site Plan application.

  • January 15th 2025: Members of the Home Trust met with Town Staff and discussed the fact that the additional requirements for a PRD in the January 6th notice were not only out of step with the Hearing Examiner’s decision, but also could not be met simultaneously with existing code requirements from the Town for a BSP. The Town Administrator informed the Home Trust representatives that she would follow up with the Community Development Director.

  • February 2025: After receiving the final certificates of occupancy for the buildings, the HT requested more information about the timeline for finalizing and recording the Binding Site Plan, the last piece needed to sell the homes. The Town informed the Home Trust that we would hear by the end of their 65 Day review Period. 

  • April 2025: On day 63 of the 65 Day Review Period, which is the maximum allowed by state law, the Home Trust received another Notice of Administrative Decision from the Town, reiterating the same new requirements for a PRD as the January 6 decision. At this time, the Home Trust stopped engaging with Town Staff on the matter and began to seek public and legal support.

  • May 2025: The Home Trust sent a letter from our lawyer to the Town, and launched the Unlock HolliWalk petition.