Accepting change behind our ‘moat’

Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, March 9, 2005

“We who live on islands,” an area legislator once observed, “like to think we are different.”

We smiled anew at the legislator’s comment this week, rediscovering it as we unearthed a 15-year-old New York Times article headlined, “Islanders just want to be left alone.” Written roughly on the eve of Bainbridge Island’s vote for self-governance, the piece looked at our small Puget Sound community as it bristled under the distant rule of the county while feeling the pressures of regional growth from the east and south. Islanders hadn’t had one of their own elected to the Kitsap County Commission in 50 years; meanwhile, plans by the Port Blakely Mill Co. to put 1,000 new homes around Blakely Harbor had South Bainbridge folk up in arms, and galvanized calls for local land use control. “To the people who live on Bainbridge Island, Puget Sound is more than a place to go fishing,” the writer observed. “It’s a moat.”

A generalization, to be sure. But we’ve sensed a fortress mentality in some recent discussions of the future of our downtown commercial district. Several speakers (ironically but unapologetically, new to the community) have questioned the need for this island to accept more residents. Others counter with the imperatives of the state’s Growth Management Act, which require planning and coordination to meet the demands for housing, public services and amenities by future residents.

It is that dynamic – and, we dare say, the realization that preservation and planning are not mutually exclusive – that drove the effort to all-island government.

Looking back on the island of 15 years ago as reflected in that New York Times article, how far have we come? Most obviously, “home rule” has given us just that; rather than

relying on a remote three-person county commission to make decisions for us, we have a seven-person council elected from our midst to hear and respond to local concerns.

Of the galvanizing issues of those days, the Port Blakely development went away, giving way to a few low-density housing projects at the south end, the Blakely Harbor Park purchase and the fortuitous development of an environmental learning center. Hundreds more acres have been preserved through the Grand Forest and Gazzam Lake purchases, and more recently, the open space program organized under the aegis of the city.

On balance, we islanders have gotten what we wanted: the chance to plan our own destiny. And we’ve done pretty well for ourselves. We venture to say that the Winslow Tomorrow downtown planning effort is simply the latest manifestation of that cause; and with the degree of local control unknown 15 years ago, we should take some confidence in the results.

We don’t see downtown planning as a promotion of growth, so much as a recognition of change and the desire to shape it. Now, you may not like the capacity for growth implicit in the island’s overall zoning – or you may just want to carry on thinking we islanders can escape change because we’re somehow “different” behind our “moat”– but remember that our Comprehensive Plan is our own. We chose our future.

If you just moved here and now want to raise the

drawbridge, by all means keep the faith. Just thank the rest of us for making room for you.