The Bainbridge Island City Council will consider a “Request For Proposals” for development of the city’s Suzuki property at its meeting  on Tuesday, Aug. 11.

The Suzuki property is 13.83 acres located at the southeast corner of NE Brooklyn Road and Sportsman Club Road NE. The city owns the property and, for a time, considered building the public safety complex there. But now the city is looking at selling the land to help fund the costs of the new public safety facility downtown.

After hearing public comment at the council’s last meeting, most of which encouraged the council to include affordable housing, the council delayed action due to a previous resolution passed in 2009, which needs to be addressed.

That resolution stated that the city must sell surplus property at the fair market value, or no less than 10 percent below that. But current council members want to revise that so they can consider all proposals for development of the Suzuki property, including those from nonprofit housing groups which may not be able to pay market value prices.

Charles Wenzlau, who serves on the board of Housing Resources of Bainbridge Island, told the council at its last meeting that needed to be done.

“The RFP as currently written does not place enough value on affordable housing,” he said. “We can’t compete with private developers.”

Council members also discussed whether to rank the criteria stated in the Request For Proposals, thus giving applicants an idea of what was more important to the city in development of the Suzuki property. Such items as affordable housing, green construction, open space, integration with existing neighborhoods, etc. are listed criteria.

But the council opted not to “weigh” or “rank” the criteria, and, instead address the affordability issue by revising the 2009 resolution.

If the RFP is adopted in August, proposals are expected to be accepted for 90 days and the city would like to make a decision on the future of the property by the end of the year.