Bainbridge still waiting to hear more on proposed shopping center

Published 10:14 am Friday, August 31, 2012

It’s been more than two months since the proponents of a new shopping center on High School Road publicly unveiled their proposed project to a wary Bainbridge Island audience, but the city of Bainbridge Island said this week the company has yet to submit additional plans or schedule a needed follow-up meeting with the city.

Visconsi Companies, an Ohio-based firm that wants to build the project, has plans to construct a shopping center near the Highway 305 and High School Road intersection. The project would have seven commercial buildings totaling 53,345 square feet on five parcels that span 8.16 acres

The company submitted preliminary plans for the development in mid-May, and held a community forum on the project in June.

At the community meeting, nearby residents said there were worried that traffic from the new development would be unbearable, but company officials vowed to intensely study any potential traffic impacts. Others have raised concerns that the new development was simply not needed, and would hurt existing downtown businesses.

If approved by the city, the project is expected to include a Bartell Drugs store, a bank, and retail and medical tenants.