BI Comp Plan process moving toward completion
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Bainbridge Island is slowly but surely closing in on its Comprehensive Plan, as city staff, leaders, and the state government make progress toward a complete and legally certifiable document.
The BI City Council heard two presentations from city planning director Patty Charnas and a communications update from the Steering Committee at its March 24 meeting, all of which provided a high-level overview of the status of the critical planning document.
As of March 18, the city Planning Commission has completed its recommendations for nine elements of the draft Comp Plan. With the Winslow Subarea Plan, land use, water resources, environment, utilities, housing, cultural, economic, and human services elements out of the way, the commission is now closing in on its final stages of review. The environmental, water resources, human services and cultural elements are all optional for the submission of the Comp Plan.
On April 9, the commission will hold a study session for the draft Comp Plan, draft Winslow Subarea Plan and the development regulations, Charnas noted.
Deputy Mayor Kirsten Hytopoulos asked city staff about the timeline of the Groundwater Management Plan, a separate document from the Comp Plan that outlines the state of the island’s drinking water reserves, which come exclusively from underground aquifers.
Some city leaders and members of the public, including scientific experts, have raised concerns about the island’s aquifer, noting that, as a limited resource, drinking water should be the guiding factor for population growth on the island, to an extent, whether growth is warranted at all. In October, a team of groundwater consultants informed council that the existing GWMP has little information that could be of use in short-term planning, including unclear evidence indicating the sustainability of the city’s current water usage. Instead, the city should encourage water conservation and surface water management, they said.
Interim city manager Ellen Schroer assured Hytopoulos that the GWMP is on track to be adopted by about June 9, a few weeks before the council is scheduled to adopt the Comp Plan in late June.
Meanwhile, the state is doing its own review of BI’s work so far. In January, the Department of Commerce selected BI for review under the Housing Accountability Act, in order to ensure that the city’s Comp Plan aligns with its allotted housing targets created by the Growth Management Act.
At the March 24 meeting, Charnas informed council that the city has provided the Comp Plan documents it has so far to the state board, which has begun reviewing the documents for alignment with the GMA. When the state provides its feedback, city staff will incorporate the changes and resubmit the documents for a second round of review, due in June.
From a wider perspective, some updates to the city’s stated values may be in store, per the Steering Committee, a six-member city advisory group comprised of three Planning Commission members and three councilmembers.
The committee has compiled suggested updates to the Comp Plan’s guiding principles from city advisory groups and councilmembers, which will be discussed at a future meeting.
“[There’s] become this feeling in our community that we’ve got two warring sides, like it’s all this or all that: it’s either pro-human, pro-equity, or it’s anti-growth, pro-environment, and that there’s no way that we as a community can do all that. It just meant a lot to me to be able to see how those are so compatible,” said Hytopoulos, referring to the recent Steering Committee meeting. “By pulling these together, we’re simply doing what our Comp Plan, and originally the city from the beginning, has been trying to do there.”
