Residents and business owners from the Country Corner area of Eastsound met with San Juan County Senior Planner Colin Maycock on Jan. 26 to start the process of designating the area, under the county Growth Management Act, as a Limited Area of More Intense Rural Development.

The purpose of this first meeting was to give landowners in the area a chance to comment on the proposal and ask questions. Maycock said that much would depend on what the area was like in 1991. That was when the GMA took effect.

Theron Soderlund, owner of the Country Corner Convenience Store and gas station complex, said that when they first built Country Corner there was an expectation that they would be on the sewer within a year. He says they are a quarter of a mile from Eastsound’s water wells and they should be on the sewer.

“We are going to help the county with the process,” Soderlund said. “There was not a huge turnout at this first meeting. We will be talking to our land owning neighbors to convince them that they need to be part of the process.”

Residents were told that the LAMRID should take six months to complete.

Until the LAMRID is in place, land owners will be unable to subdivide their property at less than one home per five acres and they will be unable to hook up to the Eastsound Sewer District.

The next meeting will be on Feb. 8 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Eastsound Fire Department meeting room.