Hearing coming for Bainbridge’s Housing Design Demonstration Project

Published 12:00 pm Sunday, September 25, 2016

Bainbridge officials will hold a public hearing to talk about extending the city’s Housing Design Demonstration Project pilot program, as well as possible changes to the ordinance that allows dense development projects.

A public hearing will be held during the city council’s meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 27.

The program was launched in August 2009 following nearly a year of study by planning and city officials, but has sparked controversy at times from the provisions of the program that allow more homes to be built in and around Winslow if those new neighborhoods include affordable housing or are built “green.”

The original program was set to expire in August 2012, but the sunset date was pushed back for a year, and then again in 2013 for another three years.  The pilot program is currently set to end in December.

One proposed change is to align the boundaries of the program to the outer limits of the Winslow Sanitary Sewer Area.

Another change will be to extend the sunset date to December 2017 to give city staff a chance to review the program and compare it with other methods to increase affordable housing that are currently under consideration as the city updates its comp plan.

Another change would be to remove the part of the program that encourages low impact development. Bainbridge is currently working on low impact development regulations.