To the editor:

A voting bloc of four city councilmembers is pushing development policies that will greatly increase housing density on our Island; voters should be aware of the facts.

Just this month, the council moved to extend the Housing Demonstration Ordinance, which allows for a 2.5-times density increase in the Winslow sewer service area.

Also in the works are plans to bring sewer to Island Center to increase density there, allowing tiny homes island-wide, inclusionary zoning for Winslow, and a host of other densification proposals. Inclusionary zoning alone could increase our population by 15,113. Our comprehensive plan envisions thousands of new residents in the coming decades, not tens of thousands.

We are an island with a population of 24,846. Given how much growth we are already struggling to deal with, do we really want to adopt policies that will accelerate growth even more? The cumulative environmental effects of these policies needs examining.

It is hard to see how these development policies, pushed by Councilmembers Blossom, Tirman, Deets and Schneider, comports with our comp plan’s vision of an environmentally sustainable, semi-rural island of forests and farms, with narrow, winding tree-lined roads, committed to climate action.

This election, voters will have a chance to vote out Blossom and Schneider by voting for Michael Pollock and Grayson Wildsmith, two candidates committed to managing growth in accord with our comp plan. Environmental advocate Kirsten Hytopolous is also running and deserves our support.

MARY CLARE KERSTEN

Bainbridge Island