South Capitol Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Minutes
Weds, March 11, 2026 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Lincoln Elementary School library
Note: On March 17, 2026, Gerry Apple made a motion to approve the March 11, 2026 board minutes via email vote. Gordon White seconded. Nine board members voted in favor, and the motion passed.
Introductions and Call Meeting to Order
Members of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association (SCNA) Board in attendance:
John Saunders, President
Gerry Apple, Vice President
Sue Hedrick, Secretary
Morgan Montes, Secretary
Gordon White, Eric Seder, and Lorie Hewitt, At Large members
The board members and meeting attendees introduced themselves.
Presentation and discussion of the Port of Olympia’s role in our community – District One Port Commissioner and Commission President Jasmine Vasavada
Port Commissioner Vasavada spent the first hour of the meeting, giving a brief history of the creation of the port district and commission, sharing her ideas for the port’s future, and asking for suggestions.
The port commission is partially funded through a portion of property taxes paid by Thurston County residents (1.3%).
The port owns and operates four lines of business: the marine terminal, commercial real estate, Swantown marina and boatworks, and the Olympia regional airport. The airport was formally handed over to the port by the city of Olympia in 1963.
Commissioner Vasavada mentioned some public-private businesses situated on port property, such as the Olympia Farmers Market, Hands On Children’s Museum, and Percival Landing. She said that they are looking at ways to promote economic development and tourism in the port peninsula area including allowing the construction of a waterfront boutique-style hotel in Swantown. However, she noted that many of those who live on boats at Swantown are lower-income residents who have shared concerns that the development would not benefit and could negatively impact them, for example, by resulting in the loss of parking spaces.
She said that some county residents have questioned whether the port needs an industrial footprint, suggesting other uses for port property such as parks. However, if the marine terminal were mothballed, she said there are still liabilities they would have to address.
Commissioner Vasavada said she feels it would be better to hold onto property the port district owns so it can be used to create new opportunities for businesses and potentially more jobs, particularly since state government may not continue to be the main employer in the area in the future, given the future of technology and whether employees live near where they work.
She mentioned examples for promoting economic development, such as the Agriculture Innovation Park in Tenino, which gives entrepreneurs an opportunity to start new businesses or expand existing ones, and a proposal to build a meat packing plant to process Thurston County livestock since there are none west of the Cascades.
Another possibility is an empty berth at the terminal near Anthony’s Home Port restaurant currently not being used. She said she would love to see it used for small ship building. The port of Olympia isn’t a home for that activity at present, but other places in Puget Sound are.
Commissioner Vasavada heard suggestions from the meeting attendees such as creating better connections regionally by encouraging connector flights from the Olympia airport to airports in Portland and SeaTac, or having seaplanes fly from here to Lake Union in Seattle. Also shared were two examples of economic development in eastern Washington: EquipmentShares – providing builders, crews, and contractors with reliable equipment – and a viticulture (wine-making) learning center.
A final suggestion was made for the commission to provide better information on the port’s return on investment and to have more transparency.
In response to a question about the status of the master plan update, which proposed expanding the Olympia airport; Commissioner Vasavada said that is not happening now.
She said the port is leading a cleanup of contaminated sediment in Budd Inlet and will need to finish the environmental remediation before contractors remove the 5th Avenue dam, one of the steps in the Deschutes Estuary Restoration Project. In the future, this cost will be shared by the port and other jurisdictions.
She asked for suggestions to better communicate information about port activities with county residents. Port commission meetings are recorded and shared on YouTube, and one suggestion was that the video quality be improved. Another was to provide highlights of each commission meeting similar to what Olympia staff do in “Council in 10” meeting recaps on their OlyTV3 YouTube channel. JOLT News was mentioned as a good way to share information, but it was agreed it does not provide in-depth reporting like local news media.
She said there is a community advisory committee for the port commission, but has felt there’s been something of a disconnect between the committee and its work and the commission, so she proposed having a commissioner(s) serve as liaison between the two. Newly-elected Port Commissioners Krag Unsoeld and Jerry Toompas volunteered to serve in that capacity.
Additional Items for the Agenda
Update on March 10th meeting with city staff – John Saunders and Gordon White
John and Gordon said they recently met with Tim Smith, Olympia director of community planning and economic development, to bring him up-to-date on previous discussions they had had with Tim’s predecessor, Susan McLaughlin, about homes being converted to office buildings and proposals for small-scale commercial in neighborhoods. Senior Planners Joyce Phillips and David Ginther also participated.
The city council’s Land Use and Environment Committee will be working on code amendments to allow small scale commercial businesses in residential zones and upgrading the home occupancy business permit process to reduce loss of housing to business use.
John and Gordon said the meeting was productive and they plan to continue to monitor and participate in future meetings on these items.
Treasurer’s Report – Morgan Montes
Morgan previously sent the February Treasurer’s report to the board, which is under Written Reports at the end of the minutes. She mentioned that the board’s liability insurance is due on April 29th.
Gerry moved to accept the Treasurer’s report, Gordon seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
2026 Neighborhood Grant – Gerry Apple
Gerry reported that the board recently submitted a neighborhood grant application to the city, requesting funds for two community forums in the fall (topics to be determined) and mailings to advertise them, and for a fall neighborhood picnic and community services fair. Gerry thanked Eric for all of his hard work leading the effort on preparing and submitting the grant application. The total amount requested was $5,000. Review of the grant submittals, council approval, and contracting for the successful grants will occur between March and May 2026.
John mentioned that a representative of the Thurston County Food Bank and Kiwanis Gardens reached out to him, asking about the possibility of collaborating with the South Capitol neighborhood on a neighborhood grant to purchase tools for the gardens. Unfortunately, this occurred after our grant application had been submitted for this year. It is something the SCNA can certainly consider doing next year. John noted that the Kiwanis Gardens produce 56,000 pounds of fresh produce for the Food Bank each year.
March 9th Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) Meeting – Sue Hedrick
Sue reported that Daniel Garcia, the new CNA communications coordinator, sent out a recap of the CNA meeting after it had ended. She promised to share it with the board members.
Motion to adjourn
Gordon moved to adjourn the meeting, Lorie seconded, and the motion was approved unanimously. The meeting ended at 8:19 pm.
Next SCNA board meeting – Weds, April 8, 2026 6:30 pm, Lincoln Elementary School library
Written Reports
February 2026 Treasurer’s Report
Period: 2/01/25 – 2/27/26
Business Priming Savings $25.00
Innovator Checking Ending Balance $2,458.53
Innovator Checking Beginning Balance $2,472.76
Difference $(14.23)
Recent Income:
Membership Dues $15.00
Total $15.00
Recent Expenses:
Google Suite $9.23
Secretary of State Filing $20.00
Total $29.23
Difference $(14.23)
Transactions in process:
We received notice that our liability insurance premium will renew for $440 on 4-29-26 for the year.
South Capitol Neighborhood Association 