Ted Kenney

Ted Kenney is a third-generation Gig Harbor Peninsula resident who grew up in Rosedale and attended Gig Harbor High School the year it opened. He has worked as a news reporter, software marketer and restaurant owner. He loves reading, especially Raymond Chandler novels and good non-fiction.

Trouble in paradise: Short-term rental on sandspit becomes flashpoint for controversy

Jul 19, 2024

From the watery world of the Lighthouse Beach short-term rental property, it’s easy to forget worldly cares. The site, boasting two complete houses and a boat dock, straddles the sandspit at the mouth of Gig Harbor Bay. It is adjacent to the city’s iconic lighthouse and its grassy, marine-access-only park. With ample picture windows looking

Village at Harbor Hill still waiting on an anchor-tenant grocer

Jun 13, 2024

The Village at Harbor Hill developers had no “amazing news” at a community meeting, but a Trader Joe’s representative was in the crowd.

Short-term rentals grew slowly in first year under new regulations, Gig Harbor officials say

Apr 15, 2024

Could it be that after an 18-month moratorium on new short-term rentals (STRs) in Gig Harbor, a sometimes acrimonious public debate on the topic, and a full year of these lodgings operating under new rules that seemed to satisfy neither critics nor proponents, the city’s STR businesses are growing at a slow to moderate pace

Harbor Farms shutters Rosedale Street venue, buys larger North Rosedale site

Apr 03, 2024

A farm-oriented amusement venue that made a splash when it operated for a few weekends last fall has closed its doors (or rather, farmyard gates) for good at its Rosedale Street location. For sale signs popped up along its split-rail fence earlier this month, surprising passersby. Harbor Farms, the creation of Gig Harbor pizzeria and

Geoduck farm hearings postponed two months due to opposition leader’s departure

Mar 19, 2024

Hearings on Taylor Shellfish’s proposed geoduck farm in Burley Lagoon have been postponed until May.

Gig Harbor plans $2 million roundabout at 56th Street and 38th Avenue

Mar 14, 2024

Many people living near the junction of 56th Street NW and 38th Avenue NW, at the western edge of Gig Harbor city limits, have been there long enough to remember when it was a country crossroads. Traffic at this spot is not bad now. But when city officials look at the intersection in light of

Free legal pop-ups debut this week in Gig Harbor

Feb 12, 2024

Legal advice may not, at first, seem as fundamental a human need as food or medical care. But Bob Vollbracht, volunteer leader of the Gig Harbor Key Peninsula Housing-Homeless Coalition, has seen the profound benefit of free legal services to low-income clients shaken by situations such as domestic violence, child custody disputes or looming evictions.

Pierce County weighs stripping urban growth designation from Purdy

Jan 29, 2024

If Purdy ever truly dreamed of an urban future, that possibility may be slipping away. The tiny agglomeration of businesses, schools, homes and utility company maintenance yards at the head of Henderson Bay, just over Gig Harbor’s northern border, has long been designated an urban growth area (UGA) under the Pierce County Comprehensive Plan. That’s

Proponents, foes of Burley Lagoon geoduck farm to face off at March 2024 hearings

Dec 07, 2023

Parties to a dispute over a proposed 25.5 acre geoduck farm in Burley Lagoon have until March 2024 to hone arguments and marshal evidence. That’s when Taylor Shellfish, which seeks to launch the controversial aquaculture operation, will face off against a coalition of environmental groups and neighbors in arguments before the Pierce County Hearing Examiner

Developments would bring more than 150 residences to Swede Hill

Nov 28, 2023

Add northern Swede Hill to the list of Gig Harbor locales slated for accelerating suburban growth. West of Highway 16, on land sloping down to Burnham Drive NW and McCormick Creek, two local developers are shepherding separate proposals through the city’s permitting process that would add more than 150 residences on land now occupied by