Environmental concerns are driving out other values in city decision-making, contractor Bill Nelson says.

In what he calls an effort to “restore balance,” Nelson is running for the central ward, position 4, city council seat being vacated by Merrill Robison.

“For the sake of protecting Bainbridge Island’s environment, we’ve forsaken other parts of the quality of life, such as human interaction,” Nelson said.

The 42-year-old island native says that excessive regulation is driving up costs and depriving the island of diversity.

He is critical of council decisions such as the proposed landscape ordinance that have the effect of lowering housing densities, saying that lower densities require more land per home, which, in turn, raises prices.

Conversely, he believes that to make housing more affordable, zoning needs to be changed to make higher densities possible in areas such as Lynwood Center.

“We can promote affordable housing through zoning,” he said. “We don’t need higher density everywhere, but we need it in some areas for affordability – you can’t have it both ways.”

Nelson believes the city could contract out much of the regulatory work it does, particularly on development matters, saving both money and staff time.

“The developers have to pay for bureaucracies, and they pass those costs on to the end-users,” he said.

“And it takes time away from work that the city engineer, for instance, needs to spend on public projects.”

Nelson favors allowing four south-end neighborhoods that claim widespread septic failures to install sewer service.

“There is a known health and safety issue,” he said, “and it is incumbent upon the city to act.”

He does not share concerns expressed by some council members that any additional sewer service will lead to increased densities, saying that the existing zoning is adequate to address growth issues.

Nelson is also opposed to the Bainbridge Harbor Commission’s draft plan for Eagle Harbor, which would permit liveaboards to continue using a portion of the harbor.

“The water is for everybody,” he said. “I don’t want to see the liveaboards leave – I like those people – but why should they have open space at everyone’s expense?”

He disputes that argument that living on board constitutes a long-standing, historic use of the inner harbor.

“The first time anybody anchored out there was in the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, when some kids towed a houseboat out there and used it for parties,” he said.

Instead of an anchor-out liveaboard area in the inner harbor, Nelson would like to see an extension of the city dock at Waterfront Park to create a number of additional mooring slips.

Some of those should be subsidized, he said, to provide affordable-housing opportunities.

Island industry

After graduating from Bainbridge High School, Nelson worked at a variety of jobs – commercial fishing, construction, on a tug, and at the old Wyckoff plant.

He founded Nelson Wood and Glass in 1987, and the company now employs 17 people.

This is his second try for a city council seat. In 1993, he narrowly lost to incumbent Charles Averill.

Nelson criticizes opponent Bill Knobloch as a single-issue candidate, referring to Knobloch’s opposition to the proposed driving range at Wing Point golf club, saying single-issue advocacy does not produce a well-rounded candidate.

But Nelson, a Wing Point member, is not adamantly in favor of the driving range itself. He would like to see the city consider building a public driving range, open to everybody, perhaps on the SR-305 corridor.

“Land right on the highway is too noisy to be developed, but the traffic wouldn’t be a problem for a driving range,” he said.

Nelson thinks the no-growth or slow-growth faction in the community – “the people who want Bainbridge Island to stay exactly the way it was when they moved here” – is over-represented on the present city council.

He blames that on the lack of involvement from those with different viewpoints.

“Very few people who work on the island are involved in government,” he said.