But critics fear the development of a ‘canyon’ effect in downtown. This is the first part in a series about the Winslow Tomorrow planning initiative.

Crucial but bone-dry, the words line up in a seemingly endless succession across bulging stacks of planning documents at City Hall.

Codes. Design guidelines. Master Plans. Aside from city employees, few have the time or patience to wade through them, let alone decipher their meaning. Even those who are paid to do so admit it’s a dizzying task.

Still, as the backbone of Winslow Tomorrow – a massive long-term planning effort for the downtown that began in 2004 – it is the writing on which the future of Winslow hinges.

For some, it may as well be the writing on the canyon walls – as in the sheer, towering faces of buildings that some fear may one day line both sides of Winslow Way, if proposed code changes are deemed acceptable by the City Council.

“I think we can all agree with the goals expressed in Winslow Tomorrow,” said Kirsten Hytopoulos, who is helping spearhead a campaign to scrutinize the plan. “Walkability, tree preservation, affordable housing – everyone agrees those things are good.

“The problem is in the way it’s being implemented. The actual code changes do not bear resemblance to a lot of those goals. In fact, I would argue they actually defeat many of them.”

Among the proposed changes – to be discussed at a public Planning Commission workshop Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall – is an increase in the allowable building heights downtown from 35 feet to as much as 55 feet, depending on location. Building taller would be contingent on a project’s parking strategy and the extent to which its developer is willing to contribute to open space, affordable housing or downtown amenities.

Also being reviewed are changes to the downtown’s floor area ratio – used to determine the density of a given project – building setbacks and new design guidelines aimed at lessening the visual impact of increased building height and bulk in Winslow.

The City Council last December adopted the Winslow Tomorrow recommendations as policy amendments to the Winslow Master Plan, which serves as the blueprint for downtown development.

Since then, the Planning Commission has been considering the code changes, which would ultimately require approval from the council later this year. Should that happen, implementation would then take several months, planners said.

Thursday night’s meeting is being billed by the city as an opportunity for the public to learn about those changes and ask questions about Winslow Tomorrow.

But as Winslow Tomorrow after three years of work finally stands on the precipice of tangible change – the council last month approved nearly $1 million in funding to take steps toward an overhaul of utilities and amenities along Winslow Way – public outcry is stirring.

Hytopoulos and others have mobilized, creating a website and forum to keep apprised of what’s happening. They hosted a public meeting Tuesday night and have started an online petition opposing the proposed changes.

Islander Rod Stevens even created some doctored images of what he believes could be the future of Winslow Way, the most striking of which depicts what he dubbed “Winslow Canyon,” a series of hulking buildings casting shadows along the length of the street.

“My primary concern is that the building height and scale will cause a fundamental change in the character of Winslow Way,” said Stevens, who is a business development consultant. “These changes could lead to the loss of our independent retailers.”

He also is worried about the city making grandiose plans that he doesn’t think it can pay for.

City planners say they’ve heard the shouts about building height and loss of downtown character reverberating off the fictional canyon walls. Their goal now is to explain to the public what changes are actually being proposed, when and how those changes would be implemented, and in what ways the new rules might alter the physical landscape of Winslow.

“A lot has been misconstrued,” said Sandy Fischer, who after three years at the helm of the project left her post last week to return to the private sector. “The general public doesn’t understand what current code allows.”

She pointed to condominium development downtown, which has increased since the city chose, with input from the public, to focus half of the island’s future growth in Winslow.

The bottom line, Fisher said, is that there have been no downtown zoning changes since 1998. Thus, buildings like Harbor Square – cited by many as an example of undesirable development – are the result of current codes, not Winslow Tomorrow.

“Code changes take awhile,” she said. “They’re incremental. If we adopt something on Monday that doesn’t mean that on Tuesday everything changes. Winslow Tomorrow isn’t causing change – nothing has been built for Winslow Tomorrow.”

What has been laid is the foundation of change; how that change will manifest itself physically is at the core of the debate, Fischer said.

The Winslow Tomorrow effort was launched in 2004 as an urban design initiative designed to guide development downtown, while preserving island character and culture. It began with widespread public involvement. A Community Congress made up of more than 125 volunteers spent more than a year shaping the plan before eventually being disbanded.

Some believe the project has since suffered from a lack of public involvement.

“It’s been two years with little or no public participation in a proposal that would drastically change the face of Winslow,” Stevens said.

Fischer admits that following the disbanding of the Community Congress, public perception of the project has soured, while awareness has dwindled. Many, she said, struggle to define which projects are a part of the effort, in part because the city hasn’t made that entirely clear.

The Winslow Way overhaul is up first. But at least five or six other projects are on tap, including Waterfront Park and a downtown parking garage.

Fischer concedes that the changes have been slow in coming.

“I wish we were further along,” she said. “I would have liked to have been here to see some of the changes take place, but we have a solid start on a lot of these projects.”

As one explanation for the delay, she cited the Council’s decision not to approve funding for Winslow Tomorrow until halfway through 2006. In the interim she shifted much of her energy to planning around the ferry terminal – something, she said, that is not part of Winslow Tomorrow.

Another explanation is simply the plodding pace at which the public process typically moves, a view expressed by Fischer’s successor, Kathy Cook.

“Part of it is logistical,” said Cook, who took over for Fischer last month. “There are only so many Planning Commission and City Council meetings. We need to work within the schedule, and there are competing interests that are all important.”

With Cook’s arrival come changes to the structure of Winslow Tomorrow. Under Fischer, it was largely a self-directed effort. Now, planning will be done concurrently with the planning department. The move makes sense, according to Greg Byrne, the city’s new Planning Director.

Being new to the island and to the project, Byrne said he can relate to the frustration and confusion experienced by some in the community.

“It’s understandable,” he said. “It took me a couple of months to understand all the components.”

Even projects that technically don’t fall under the Winslow Tomorrow heading, he said, like ferry district planning and developing plans along state Route 305, need to be considered in the larger scheme of things, as the island continues to navigate its way through growth and the tempestuous climate that often accompanies it.

That much is clear to Hytopoulos, who, like many other islanders, is ambiguous about change, though she knows it is, to a certain degree, inevitable.

A new job sent her and her family shuffling east a few years ago. But Bainbridge was home, and last summer they again settled in to island life.

“I was driving by a clear-cut lot,” she said, of the days following her return. “It was like a snapshot for me of the transformation that’s happening here. I was overwhelmed and frustrated by urbanization that in my view is out of control. A lot of people share that same reaction but have nowhere to go with it.”

Hence the website, www.savewinslowway.com, the petition and the town meeting.

Fischer encouraged people to get involved by going to public meetings.

“Everyone loves this island,” Fischer said. “Everyone wants to do what’s right. People see the implications of growth projections on the island. Now they have to discuss what form that growth should take.”

Hytopoulos, for one, is in favor of the infrastructure changes that are set to take place on Winslow Way. Her concerns are of island and downtown character that she sees as imperiled. In the face of rising contention over that and myriad other issues, like tree preservation, open space and the potential loss of independent businesses, her hope is that the community will again take the reins of Winslow Tomorrow.

“I believe most people moved to Bainbridge and have chosen to remain here because of what’s special about it,” she said. “Winslow Tomorrow is nearing some critical milestones. To characterize us as an opposition group that’s reactionary and afraid of change is absolutely a mischaracterization.

“We want to mobilize what might otherwise be a silent majority.”

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Up town

This is the first article in a series examining Winslow Tomorrow, a downtown planning effort that began in 2004.

The Planning Commission hosts a workshop Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, to review a number of proposed changes that would alter the future landscape of Winslow. Winslow Tomorrow Planning documents are available at the city’s website, www.ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us.