Two Counties - Two Estuaries Sinclair Inlet to Hood Canal A Recreation and Employment Corridor

9/8/2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ken Attebery, Chief Executive Officer
360/674-2381 Ext. 21

The Port of Bremerton along with its partners from both the public and private sector is sponsoring a briefing on the activities and opportunities that are ongoing and those which lie in the future along the State Route 3 corridor linking Sinclair Inlet and Hood Canal’s Lynch Cove. The briefing will take place on the 16th of September in Belfair. Elected officials and community leaders from the communities in the corridor are invited.

Kitsap and Mason Counties share a common thread that is State Highway 3, and the Port of Bremerton has identified this highway corridor between Gorst and Belfair as an emerging “recreation and employment corridor”. Community leaders from Kitsap and Mason Counties will gather to discuss corridor planning and land use integration for employment and recreation opportunities that would serve the local economies of Kitsap and Mason Counties.

The recreational elements of the corridor include environmental restoration of Sinclair Inlet shoreline and estuary in Gorst through the joint efforts of the Port of Bremerton, Kitsap County and private property owners, and, at the south end the Theler Wetlands in Belfair. Four exceptional golf courses are located adjacent to the corridor.

Between the two estuaries are lands surrounding and including Bremerton National Airport identified as the 3400 acre South Kitsap Industrial Area (SKIA), designated by the Puget Sound Regional Council and Kitsap County as a business and industrial employment center. This urban growth area, centered on Bremerton National Airport, is planned to accommodate over 9300 new jobs over the next decade.

Bill Mahan, President of the Port of Bremerton Commission, said “this will be the first opportunity for the participants to be jointly briefed about ongoing projects to prepare the corridor for recreational and employment growth that is planned”. The Port of Bremerton is sponsoring the briefing in partnership with Karcher Creek Sewer District, Parametrix, Inc., GeoEngineering, CH2M Hill Engineering, Perteet Engineering and ESA, Inc.

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