SEQUIM — The stakes are high, but communication has broken down.

So say the two bodies who agonize over how this part of the world will grow and change.

The Sequim Planning Commission and its Clallam County counterpart will have their first joint meeting in many years at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.

Sequim commission chairman Larry Freedman, who’s also a developer and an attorney, is determined to make the meeting productive.

But he knows that planning commissions, like many advisory panels, have a tendency to talk a lot.

Sequim has seven planning commissioners while the county has nine.

All are volunteers charged with advising local lawmakers and in some cases approving building permits.

During Tuesday night’s Sequim Planning Commission meeting, Freedman walked a line between setting an agenda for the joint session and leaving the evening open for free-wheeling discussion.

“I don’t think we can sit around a table and solve the issues,” at Wednesday’s meeting.

“What we can do is break this out into areas of work,” Freedman said.

Wednesday’s meeting, Freedman hopes, will start a new era of collaboration in tackling such problems.

Sequim Planning Director Dennis Lefevre said he’ll give a short presentation, “to get the ball rolling.”

“[But] we need to be very cautious of not doing all the talking,” Freedman said.

Four groups proposed

He proposed setting up four subcommittees, of members of both commissions, to tackle utilities; traffic; zoning and density; and parks and recreation.

Freedman noted that the city and county have battled in recent years over sewer facilities and the lack thereof.

Sequim area traffic, development and where to allow increased density are also contentious topics.

Steve Gray, Clallam County Planning Manager, said he sees the discussion delving into zoning and development plans for Sequim and the surrounding urban growth area.

Stormwater management is another likely topic.

But the point of the meeting, Gray emphasized, is to “open up a spirit of cooperation.”