The Central Kitsap Community Council is taking the lead on the planning and expansion of the Central Kitsap Community Campus.

Recently the council authorized its president Natalie Bryson, to send a letter to the Kitsap County Commission, acknowledging that it will serve as the coordinator for the work on the campus.

“From the beginning, the Central Kitsap Community Council has been involved in the planning and vision for the community campus,” Bryson wrote. “It now proposes, through its campus committee, to act as interlocutor with the county and the stakeholders.”

It will do so by being the focal point for knowledge about the current state of campus development, by creating a liaison with each of the interested parties to facilitate the sharing of information regarding campus development and to inform them and to invite them to meetings of mutual interest.

The CKCC campus committee will also work to identify shared goals and guiding principals for future development and to encourage collective solutions for moving forward. The committee will coordinate closely with Linda Streissguth, the county commissioner representing the Central Kitsap area, the county’s special projects division and will provide prompt minutes of meetings to the county and all interested parties, Bryson stated.

Streissguth was at the meeting where the CKCC approved the letter and has taken it back to the full county commission for review. County commissioners had previously asked the CKCC to oversee the planning for the campus.

The Central Kitsap Community Campus, which is generally located between Silverdale Way and Randall Way, and between Bucklin Hill Road and Ridgetop Boulevard, has been in the making for more than 10 years. Currently it houses the YMCA Haselwood Branch, a precinct office of the Kitsap County Sheriff and the CSTOCK theater and Silverdale community center.

Plans are underway for a new West Sound Performing Arts Center to locate on the campus. And there is a possibility that a new Silverdale Branch Library, part of the Kitsap Regional Libraries system, will locate on the campus.

According to the CKCC letter, the next phase of development will include possible demolition of the existing Silverdale Community Center and relocation of the sheriff’s office. Future decisions will include the design work for the performing arts center and possibly the library. There also is conversation about building a parking garage on the campus.

If all of these aspects come to fruition, there needs to be coordination, Bryson said in the letter. And hence, CKCC, with its history of planning for the Central Kitsap Community Campus, should be the one to do that, she stated.

The letter is expected to receive the approval of the county commission soon.

The CKCC plans to host a public meeting at 7 p.m. March 20 with the Kitsap Regional Library for a discussion and update on plans for a new Silverdale Library. A similar meeting was held with West Sound Performing Arts Center organizers in January. The meeting will be at the Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue Administrative office at 5300 Newberry Hill Road in Silverdale.