UPDATE | Protester to decide soon whether to continue tree-top demonstration

Published 5:35 pm Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Chiara D’Angelo said she would decide by 7:30 p.m. Tuesday whether or not to end her tree-top protest against a new shopping center on Bainbridge Island.

Bainbridge city officials said earlier that Visconsi, the Ohio-based company that wants to build a shopping center at the northeast corner of Highway 305 and High School Road, would not press charges against D’Angelo if she left her tree stand by the deadline.

Officials said earlier that D’Angelo is trespassing on the private property. D’Angelo climbed nearly 70 feet into a Douglas fir tree early Monday to protest the planned development.

D’Angelo said earlier she had been offered a deal from the company that she would not face charges if she came down from the tree, but said she  did not accept it because it wasn’t in writing.

Demonstrations near the development site started Saturday and continued Monday and Tuesday.

A crowd of more than 140 people, including camera crews from Seattle television stations, gathered at the site Tuesday afternoon.

The crowd had thinned to about 30 people by 5:30 p.m.