I’m compelled to speak to Emma Amiad’s letter in the Nov. 22 issue (“Zoning overlay will not cause feared significant changes,” Nov. 22).

If the goal is to help Vashon HouseHold get some more affordable housing, I don’t understand how a Vashon town plan allowing for 1,500 new residential units is necessary. Nonprofits already get density incentives. The density incentives overlay for developers sets up a situation that Vashon will regret. This is a one-way street and once passed by King County there’s no going back.

It is bad public policy to misalign zoning capacity with obvious and real resource constraints. If these density incentives pass the King County Council on Monday, Dec. 4, the unfortunate effects on Water District 19 and ferry lines will be keenly felt by all of us for years to come. No matter how much we all support getting more affordable housing, we will regret these density incentives.

This island discussion would be better served outside of a specific issue and current planning, and instead in a discussion of Vashon’s future and how we meet our needs and our values. The latter would then be able to create a threats-and-opportunities discussion, probably way more collaborative in nature and ultimately result in more comprehensive solutions along with energy around new business models that would be important to implementing solutions. The failure of the county to pursue such an approach was truly bad on its part.

There are about two more days for us to make a difference. Email comments to CouncilCompPlan@kingcounty.gov and joe.mcdermott@kingcounty.gov. After that, we just get to live with it — forever.

— Martin Koenig