BREMERTON — Cary Bozeman got a couple of things done in his time, both as a publicly elected official and as a private businessman.

So now the ripples crossing Puget Sound from Seattle carry with them a very distinctive drumbeat. Bozeman can see them, can hear them.

“The message I get,” says Bozeman, “is that we are presented with a threat and an opportunity. Are we ready to act on the opportunity? Or do we wait until it becomes a threat?”

Bozeman’s growing sense of urgency pushed him to invite a group of public sector planning professionals, plus a number of Bremerton’s high-powered real estate folks, to gather at the Port Commissioners’ public meeting hall at the Bremerton Airport to discuss what they saw coming and the opportunity it presented to everyone in that room. And the ultimate purpose was a chance to hear and talk with the scion of one of the best-known and successful real estate families in the Pacific Northwest, J. Lennox Scott.

Scott’s grandfather, John L. Scott, emigrated to the United States from Scotland earlier in the 20th Century. He was so taken by the beauty and opportunity of the Pacific Northwest that he cut off a trip originally intended to conclude in sunny San Diego.

In the meantime, his grandson absorbed many life and business lessons. Lennox Scott grew to be successful in his own right, heading a multi-million-dollar business that thrives today. And even from across the water, Lennox Scott saw the potential of the Kitsap Peninsula, and ways to prepare for the opportunity developing in Kitsap.

So when Cary Bozeman called, Lennox Scott was ready. Scott was the featured speaker at what could be called a roundtable on housing or an economic strategy meeting.

“No one needs to tell us that the Seattle real-estate market is exploding,” Scott told a group of real-estate developers, public-sector planners and elected officials. “The problem is, real estate is so crazy now that there is a ripple effect moving outward from Seattle toward to the suburbs. Bremerton is right in that path. If we prepare for that ripple, the market will be waiting for us.”

Scott noted that Seattle already faced a huge shortage of affordable housing, and people were looking elsewhere — to Federal Way, to Kent, to Auburn and, yes, across the water.

“You drive to qualify,” he said.

But in that process, smart planning requires the solution to three big questions:

1. Can we get out ahead of the opportunity? There is still time, but how agile is the investment and real estate community?

2. If we create affordable housing in Kitsap County, will companies come here looking for a quality of life they cannot afford to offer their workers in King County?

3. And finally, what mix of housing must be developed to create the attractive place we believe it to be?

And the market isn’t going anywhere. Scott notes that May 2016 was the hottest real-estate month ever in the Seattle market. Good news for investors — and not so good for those struggling to make ends meet in the big city. The median price of Kitsap County residential real estate has, as of May 2016, exceeded that of King County. A just-released study found that Seattle rental prices are increasing four times faster than the national average. This is going to make the Kitsap area that much attractive as a place from which to commute.

“It’s going to happen here,” said Bozeman. “The question is, how do we get smart about this?”