80-home Lynwood plan taking shape

The project would put new commercial space fronting the road.

While restoration of Lynwood Center’s signature mansion is the neighborhood’s most visible sign of change, a related project could bring 80 new homes to the hillside around it.

The so-called Blossom Hill development would put 65 single-family homes in an “upper village” immediately north and east of the restaurant.

Another 15 residences and 13,000 square feet of commercial space in a mixed-use “lower village” would front Lynwood Center Road, across the street from the theater and other shops.

Winslow architect Charlie Wenzlau, commissioned by local builder Bill Nelson to design the project, said the buildings would complement the Tudor stylings of the existing commercial center, which dates to the 1930s.

“We’re trying to pick up elements from the other buildings,” Wenzlau said. “It’s almost like taking it apart and putting it back together in different ways.”

A series of pedestrian pathways would connect homes with the commercial area below.

Despite its density, the project would not require any rezones; most of the hillside east of Lynwood Center Road has long been zoned at five units per acre.

Zoning in the whole of the planning area – which encompasses some 54 acres around the Lynwood Center/Point White Drive intersection – will accommodate about 211 new residential units over time, said Kathy Cook, city planner.

Applications for the Blossom Hill project have not yet been filed with the city. But a public meeting will be held March 21 at the Bainbridge Commons, at which Wenzlau will discuss the project with neighbors.

Slated a week earlier is a meeting on possible redevelopment of the Serenity House care center property, adjacent to the south of the Blossom Hill land.

Wenzlau said plans for that property – recently purchased by the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority, in partnership with a subsidized housing group – are in abeyance, with no specific proposals likely for six months or a year.

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Lynwood future

Two community meetings on development plans in the Lynwood Center area will be held this month.

A meeting on the future of the Serenity House care center will be held at 6:30 p.m. March 14 at City Hall, while a meeting on the Blossom Hill project will be held at 6:30 p.m. March 21 at the Bainbridge Commons on Bjune Drive. Information: 780-6882.

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