New citizens group forms in Coupeville land-use dispute

A new citizens group has formed in Coupeville as the town weighs whether to reopen a 2004 agreement that still governs 33 acres north of Highway 20 between Main Street and Broadway Street. The fight over Krueger Farm has become a test of how much housing the town will allow on one of its most important in-town parcels, and how much legal risk it will take on to change the rules.

The memorandum of agreement, signed in January 2004, remains the starting point for the dispute. Under the current terms, the property can still be developed for 30 units. Town officials have been considering amendments that would allow accessory dwelling units and a limited number of duplexes, and one draft concept would raise the site’s maximum potential to 49 housing units.

That difference has become the fault line in the debate. If the agreement is enforced as written, the town keeps the existing cap and the development rules that came out of the 2004 compromise with Cecil and Cheryl K. Stuurmans. If the town challenges or revises it, Coupeville could open more room for housing on the 33-acre parcel, but staff have warned that changing the agreement could create legal risks and would have to be folded into the town’s comprehensive plan.

The land itself has been a flash point for more than two decades. Earlier discussions in 2003 described the parcel, known as Krueger Farm, as the largest piece of land in town owned by one person, and planners at one point looked at a 108-unit concept before criticism forced revisions. In January 2004, Friends of Krueger Farm raised $280,000 in a preservation effort, underscoring how quickly the question of development on the western edge of Coupeville drew organized opposition.

That history helps explain why the issue has now produced a new citizens group instead of another routine planning comment. The argument is no longer just about one parcel on the edge of town. It is about whether Coupeville should preserve the old agreement, rewrite it to make more housing possible, or risk a legal fight over who gets to shape the future of land between Main Street and Broadway Street.