By GORDY HOLT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

For all of its retail magnetism, Silverdale has yet to fledge as a city.

As if it were still a rural wide spot of chicken coops and feed stores, Silverdale remains unincorporated and is governed from the county seat in Port Orchard nearly 20 miles away.

This continuing relationship is spurring Blaine Highfield and others to campaign for incorporation, the separation process that leads to cityhood and self government. Currently in the signature-gathering phase, the campaign is Silverdale's sixth attempt since the mid-1950s.

Ron Perkowitz, Kitsap County's former planning director and a city of Silverdale booster, said at least 660 signatures or 10 percent of the area's registered voters are needed to place the issue before voters.

The proposed new city would contain about 10,500 people in a 7-square-mile area roughly double the size of the present "downtown."

Its outline would conform to the state-mandated, growth-management boundaries drawn by the county to keep Silverdale's urban interests from sprawling into rural areas. Ridgetop, a 15-year-old residential development of 3,500 residents to the northeast, would be included.

Highfield sees cityhood as a necessary shift to local rather than county control and planning at a time when such other unincorporated neighborhoods as Kenmore and Newcastle in King County have taken the plunge.

Highfield would not duplicate other aspects of Puget Sound's eastern flank, however. He likes things here just the way they are.

"We still have little traffic congestion, our air is clear, and we have the advantage of being just a boat ride away from a major urban area if we need it. When we do go to the Kingdome, boy, we go by the boatload. But then we come home."