Island County backs dock, sewer, and road projects with rural fund

Island County commissioners backed turn lanes for the Keystone Farm and Forest Preserve, a South Whidbey dock rehab, a hospital parking lot and sewer lines in Coupeville, while leaving a mid-block crossing in Oak Harbor and a replacement for the Mutiny Bay boat ramp unfunded.

The preserve covers roughly 226 acres on Admiralty Bay, has about two-thirds of a mile of shoreline and includes a farm that has operated since the 1850s. The land trust bought the property in 2022 for $6.5 million, later won a $1.4 million federal coastal-resilience grant, and county commissioners unanimously approved it in 2025 as Whidbey Island’s third special review district, alongside Greenbank Farm and the Pacific Rim Institute.

The preserve project already includes restoration of 1,000 feet of stream to its original channel, removal of 300 feet of creosoted bulkhead and demolition of a 3,000-square-foot shoreline residence. Earlier plans for the access project included an ADA trail and educational pavilion, and county and public works documents put the request at about $1.025 million toward a $2.106 million effort for safe public access, including an SR-525 turn lane and ADA trail improvements.

The Rural County Economic Development Infrastructure Investment Program is funded by a 0.09 percent rebate from the state’s sales and use tax collections and does not raise the consumer sales tax. State law limits the dollars to public facilities that serve economic development in rural counties, affordable workforce housing infrastructure or facilities, and economic-development office personnel, and the county must align spending with adopted plans after consulting cities, towns, port districts and the Economic Development Council for Island County.

Island County still has more than $6 million unobligated in the fund and takes in just under $2 million a year, with annual revenue projected to reach $2 million or more by 2028. Commissioner Jill Johnson expects bigger asks ahead, including a Freeland sewer system, infrastructure in Oak Harbor’s urban growth area and a Coupeville housing project.

Earlier awards included $3 million for Langley’s infrastructure improvement project, $669,000 for the Port of South Whidbey fairgrounds development and $1 million for Oak Harbor marina dredging. The Port of South Whidbey also received a $688,610 RCED grant in 2018 for fairgrounds work, had spent $656,000 and received $236,000 in reimbursements by late 2024, and in March received a separate $260,000 Recreation and Conservation Office grant to replace at least 80 percent of a new dock at Possession Point.

In December 2025, the town council approved replacing water and sewer lines on Sixth Street, some nearly a century old, with a project capped at $148,444 and a target completion in spring 2026.