Where to put all those future islanders?

Published 4:00 pm Saturday, March 4, 2006

A new citizen group looks at zoning and infrastructure for the ‘2025’ growth study.

Imagine 6,900 more people on Bainbridge Island – year round, not just on the Fourth of July.

That’s the challenge facing the new 13-member Growth Advisory Committee, charged with tackling how best to accommodate the new islanders for which the community must plan. Bainbridge’s estimated population in 2025: 28,660.

“What does that mean for the island, and how do we manage that growth in a large context?” asked Patty Fielding, committee chair. “It’s almost like building the context for Winslow Tomorrow.”

The advisory group was appointed by Mayor Darlene Kordonowy and includes Tim Bailey, Tom Bartuska, James Cairns, Jeanne Huber, Lisa Macchio, Jon Quitslund, Dan Taylor, Liz Taylor, John Waldo, Neva Welton, Kat Gjovik, Donna McKinney and Kim McCormick Osmond.

The group will meet weekly at least through the end of March, with its next meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall.

Adopted in 1994 and updated two years ago, the Bainbridge Island Comprehensive Plan set a goal of accommodating 50 percent of future growth in the Winslow area – a target to which the housing construction market is only recently starting to respond.

“I think there’s an acknowledgement now that there’s been a kind of a change in the community that’s driven by demographics, with people really looking to downsize and settle in smaller places and be in kind of a small but more urban environment,” Fielding said.

“Given the way condos are selling right now, I think the assumption is that it won’t be as difficult, or maybe difficult at all, to achieve the 50 percent (of growth) in Winslow in 2006 as opposed to 2002.”

Just 5 percent of future growth is expected in the “neighborhood service centers” of Rolling Bay, Lynwood Center and Island Center, but Fielding said the group will examine these assumptions to see if those neighborhoods might accommodate more people, or fewer.

There are other challenges beyond zoning. The group is also expected to look at infrastructure and utilities, the interplay of local and regional transportation plans, water management and agriculture and open space preservation, among other issues.

The city has posted supporting documents at www.ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us, under a link called “2025 Population Allocation Study.” Citizens can sign up there to receive regular email updates of the committee’s work. Information on the committee is available from Libby Hudson, city planner, at 842-2552.

The planning is required under the state’s Growth Management Act. With the island a designated urban growth area, the committee will be asked to reconcile planning requirements with such community values as environmental sustainability.

At the end of the process – timeline uncertain, Fielding said – the committee will send alternatives to the Planning Commission and City Council for review.

All islanders are asked to join the discussion now.

“The biggest challenge right now, if I were going to put one at the top of the list, is carrying on this conversation with the public,” Fielding said. “It’s an area everybody cares about, and it’s an emotional issue. ‘It’s my island.’ And everybody feels that way.”