The city of Bainbridge Island’s Historic Preservation Commission, which has been vacant for a year and seven months, will be retained with a reduced scope going forward.

At the Nov. 18 BI council meeting, City manager Blair King was authorized to write a resolution that outlines the future of the HPC: a lower-commitment volunteer advisory body that will respond to input from the Bainbridge History Museum, but with fewer historic designation programs.

This outcome means the city will retain its status as a Certified Local Government, a designation by the state and the National Park Service that recognizes a local government’s strong historic preservation program. CLGs have access to certain grants for educational programs, surveys and nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.

All but four of the HPC’s original programs will be maintained.

Council will have the option to either discontinue or maintain three programs: Bainbridge Island-specific designations for historic island farms, heritage trees, and historic heritage properties.

Only one of the discontinued programs is certain to end: the “eligible register,” a list that identifies potential properties that could be eligible for local or national historic preservation, the exception being when such a property is up for demolition.

“I’m thinking of this as, we’ve decided on a pre-fixe menu, but we haven’t decided on the items we want to eat yet,” said BI Mayor Ashely Mathews, to a round of laughter from the council.

In early April 2024, all four sitting commissioners of the seven-member HPC walked out in protest of the demolition of the former police station at the corner of Winslow Way and Highway 305.

After about 11 months, the BI City Council considered sunsetting the commission altogether in March 2025, but elected to first consult with the Bainbridge History Museum to consider alternative options.

Councilmembers Clarence Moriwaki and Kirsten Hytopoulos supported changing the HPC meeting schedule to a quarterly, or as-needed, program.

A lower time commitment could entice more interested citizens to participate, explained Moriwaki, and would be a more efficient way for the commission to review information.