HANSVILLE — Kitsap County is starting work on a guide to help Hansville property owners deal with coastal flooding and rising seas. The first public look at the project comes Tuesday, Nov. 17, at a county Planning Commission briefing.
The Hansville Community Resiliency Project will focus on three low-lying areas at the north tip of the Kitsap Peninsula: Point No Point, the Driftwood Key neighborhood and Twin Spits, according to the project charter included in the meeting packet.
The county’s 2025 Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Risk Assessment named Hansville one of the communities in the county at greatest risk from sea-level rise and coastal flooding. County staff point to the Dec. 27, 2022, king tide, when storm surge and flooding hit low-lying parts of the community, as a sign of how exposed the area already is.
What the project will produce
The end product is a report for the community, not a construction project or new rules. The charter says it will summarize current and projected flood risks, look at near-term and long-term ways property owners and the community can adapt, and offer information on costs, timing and how those steps could be carried out.
The work will cover county-owned, community-owned and private property most at risk of flooding. Wildfire and other climate risks are outside its scope.
The county’s engagement plan says the report “will not directly amend” the Kitsap County Comprehensive Plan, and no ordinance will be adopted as a result of the project. There will be no formal hearings. Staff will instead bring periodic briefings to the Planning Commission and county commissioners.
The project grew in part out of a February 2025 meeting with Hansville residents during the countywide sea-level-rise study. Residents raised bulkhead permitting as a concern and asked the county to develop guidance on ways to reduce flood risk, the charter says.
UW students to sketch nature-based ideas
Alongside the county’s work, landscape architecture students in an advanced studio course at the University of Washington will develop nature-based design concepts for the Point No Point neighborhood between Norwegian Point Park and Point No Point Park. The class is scheduled to tour the area in January 2027 and present its work in March 2027. The students’ final projects will be shared with the Hansville community.
Timeline and how to get involved
The county plans a kickoff meeting in Hansville and a second community meeting once a draft report is ready. No date has been set for the kickoff. The project schedule calls for presenting the final report to the community in March or April 2027.
Project updates will go out through the county’s existing “KC Coastal Flooding” and “Hansville Community News” email lists, and the Kingston and Suquamish citizen advisory councils will be briefed. The project lead is Garrett Ballew, a long-range planner with the Department of Community Development, gballew@kitsap.gov.
The Nov. 17 briefing is scheduled for about 30 minutes, and the commission is not being asked to take any action.
The Planning Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Kitsap County Administration Building, 619 Division St., Port Orchard, and on Zoom at us02web.zoom.us/j/88636743440 (webinar ID 886 3674 3440, passcode 990680) or by phone at 253-215-8782. The meeting also streams on BKAT. General public comment is taken at the start and end of the meeting, with two minutes per speaker. Written comments sent to cjewell@kitsap.gov by 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, will go to commissioners before the meeting.
Meeting materials are posted at kitsap.gov/dcd/Pages/PlanningCommission.aspx.
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