Debbie Vancil
Age: 58
Education: Scripps College for Women; B.A. English, University of California; Claremont Graduate University, Multicultural Education Teaching/M.A. Program.
Occupation/work experience: Claremont Unified School District, teacher; Bainbridge Island School District, teacher; island business owner/president, 20 years;
Community involvement: Bainbridge Island City Council (four years), chair; Bainbridge Island Planning Commission (seven years), chair; Community Forestry Commission, founder; Friends of Island Shoreline Habitat, founder; Bainbridge Performing Arts, board of directors; Chamber of Commerce, board of directors; Bainbridge Arts and Humanities Council, Steering Committee; Bainbridge High School PTSO, president
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1) With the Winslow Tomorrow planning effort about to bring recommendations for downtown redevelopment, what comes next? What should the council do to follow through with the recommendations? How should the city pay for improvements, and should funding be put to a public vote?
Winslow Tomorrow is a triumph of community participation! Let’s begin by identifying “low hanging fruit,†WT recommendations that can be implemented immediately. The council has put two major projects (Winslow Way and SR 305 improvements) on hold, in an effort to coordinate with the WT recommendations. These should go forward immediately. In the preliminary budget, $3 million is earmarked to get WT going.
As with all capital expenditures, the WT projects will come before the City Council and the public for approval, not a vote. Approval of capital projects, and especially this one, must undergo a rigorous multilevel process that includes numerous opportunities for public comment; WT has not only undergone intense public scrutiny, but has actually been developed by the community. Future expenditures are good candidates for loans, grants, bonds, and public/private partnerships. This is a long-range plan that will take many years to develop.
In addition to WT, we have a Non-Motorized Transportation Plan, Open Space Commission’s criteria for land purchases, Watershed Action Plan, Farming overlay district strategy, Affordable Housing Task Force, Community Forestry Management Plan, Transportation and Cultural Facility Plans, Sub Area Plans and many others.
I will encourage the council to support a summit to bring all these commissions and committees together to cooperate and contribute to a long-range work plan for the entire city, which the council can begin work on to develop policy that can make it all happen, island-wide; we must coordinate WT with all of our other plans for “Bainbridge Tomorrow.â€
Let’s remember, WT is more than a development plan – it’s a plan that recognizes us as a community; it responds to our needs to create a community that reflects our quality of life values. Winslow is more than a place of commerce; it is a cultural gathering spot. As we build our infrastructure, let’s remember planning is more than buildings and roads; it’s people too.
2) Are there any existing city programs or ordinances you would work to eliminate? Any not in existence you would work to enact or fund?
As a city legislator, my role has been to listen to the community, define our need and help develop good policy to make it happen. There are dozens of programs, ordinances and codes that can be modified, added or eliminated that would address some of our current identified issues.
My focus would be to work with the Harbor Commission to develop a harbor plan for Eagle Harbor; craft a resolution to define the city’s intent with Washington State Ferries; encourage an open space stewardship/management plan; adopt an elected officials ethics policy; draft a tree protection and preservation ordinance; approve a long-range water monitoring plan for determining aquifer recharge and quality of our water; develop a workable Transfer of Development Rights program to put our density where we want it, in Winslow; add policy to improve and strengthen our city code enforcement department; add new language that requires a sustainability factor as part of all city policy, including budget accountability.
In addition, we need to change or delete the Floor Area Ratio requirement for increasing density in Winslow – it gives it away free – and change zonings and parking requirements in Winslow to encourage new development, so WT recommendations can move forward. Our road standards for neighborhoods and our landscape and vegetation management ordinances need review.
Sometimes our codes and policies do not reflect our Comprehensive Plan; my goal will be to focus on good legislation that implements the plan. Sometimes this is new legislation, and sometimes it means changing what we have.
3) What challenges do you see facing the council and/or the city in the next four years? How would you deal with them?
Together we have accomplished a great deal. There is still more left to do. We’ve known for a long time growth would come. We’ve begun to prepare for it by developing a Comprehensive Plan to manage it, based upon our community values, as confirmed in our community values surveys. During the next council term we will be making decisions on infrastructure, natural resources, community resources and land use, cultural and economic investments. These decisions will shape and define our quality of life here on Bainbridge Island. To insure economic, environmental and cultural sustainability for that quality of life, it’s crucial that all these decisions be made in the context of this community’s vision and values. It takes experience in this community to have that knowledge and understanding. We don’t want to be “Everywhere USA.â€
I helped craft the Comprehensive Plan and have over 25 years of community involvement; the diversity of my community participation has offered me the opportunity to work with and get to know a broad spectrum of islanders in many settings and activities. My 11 years of public service as a Bainbridge Island planning commissioner and city council member have given me a strong working knowledge of the city’s codes and policies. I understand the council’s role, and I know how to get things done. This is the time to bring all the pieces of our years of hard work together.
Our greatest challenge is us. As our community grows, we will change. We want to protect our natural systems, our agricultural lands and sensitive areas and struggle to ensure economic diversity. As we make these decisions, we must also remember to keep our sense of place; who we are as an island community, as families, as friends and neighbors. Let’s remember who we have been as a community, and ensure we still hold close those values of goodwill, fellowship, tolerance, kindness and forgiveness as our community physically changes. Yes, they are old-fashioned, ideal values. As we look forward to the future; let’s keep the best of our values of the past.
Our response to growth will not only determine what we look like, but who we are as a community. We define ourselves by how we arrive at good legislation, as much as by the legislation itself.
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Frank J. Renna, Jr.
Age: 67
Education: Engineering degree (BE); MBA; completed Yale University’s Executive Management Training Program
Work experience: Forty years with a major utility, retired as general manager.
Community involvement: Volunteering in youth activities, environmental groups, service organizations and political groups, chairman of a sewerage authority (three years). member of a board of education (nine years; two as president), advisor to the Greater Newark Conservancy (three years), Bainbridge Island Decant Facility Evaluation Committee (one year)
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1) With the Winslow Tomorrow planning effort about to bring recommendations for downtown redevelopment, what comes next? What should the council do to follow through with the recommendations? How should the city pay for improvements, and should funding be put to a public vote?
The community expects the Winslow Tomorrow planning effort to include specifics, ranging from what steps need to be taken and when, to realistic ways to fund the improvements. That said, I have certain expectations about prioritization and options going forward. Most important is that the public must be involved throughout the process.
Zoning changes are a natural first step to allow for the desired density in the core Winslow area. Since the changes are likely to be significant, opportunity for a public/private exchange should be an integral part of the process. This must include the entire community since we are all affected by what happens in the core. Zoning changes required might include allowing underground parking, increasing building height in the core, modifying the current guidelines for determining the amount of parking necessary based on a building’s floor area, and changing setbacks, curb requirements, etc.
Funding is critical. The current estimate for expenditures for Winslow Tomorrow is $30 million over five years. Therefore, it’s unlikely that sufficient revenue could be generated without utilizing all funding options. Funding options include low-interest loans or public trust grants from the state if projects qualify, impact fees, grants, funding through City Council-issued bonds, bonds voted on by the public and/or public/private partnerships to pay for specific projects. Public/private partnerships to get the job done are attractive whenever possible. It ensures buy-in from all interested and affected parties and could be used, for example, to create needed parking garages. In addition, the city could partner with a local improvement district to help meet the costs for an improved downtown sewer and water supply services. A partnership makes sense in this instance since the whole island benefits, not just the affected property owners.
In general, I would not support issuing a bond to generate needed revenue from just the City Council’s point of view. Public input is needed. Perhaps a community survey should precede some funding options. Bottom line, it is likely that voters will need to vote on a bond to fund significant aspects of the Winslow Tomorrow plan.
2) Are there any existing city programs or ordinances you would work to eliminate? Any not in existence you would work to enact or fund?
All of our existing programs and ordinances support the values of our community. There are three programs/ordinances that need to be affirmatively supported by the council going forward. These include a forestry ordinance, ethics ordinance and an affordable housing ordinance. While the first step has been taken by the Forestry Commission in compiling a Forestry Management Plan, an ordinance that addresses the numerous concerns of an urban forested community must be addressed formally in an ordinance as soon as possible. The lack of such an ordinance may have contributed to the unanticipated losses of significant trees, particularly in the downtown area.
In addition, the city has been waiting for an ethics ordinance long enough. An ethics ordinance is a win-win product; the citizens understand the performance expectations of elected officials and the elected officials understand the limits inside which they must operate
Another ordinance that should be created relates to affordable housing for various constituencies ranging from artists to senior citizens. Because a solution isn’t obvious, doesn’t mean we should ignore the problem. Rather, a citizen committee, in cooperation with council should move forward to identify what options might be feasible for Bainbridge Island to provide affordable housing alternatives before it’s too late.
3) What challenges do you see facing the council and/or the city in the next four years? How would you deal with them?
The four most urgent challenges for our city during the next four years concern the safety of pedestrians and cyclists on city roads, transportation, water sufficiency and shoreline management.
There is an island-wide concern for the immediate need to find cost-effective solutions to improve safety for residents walking or cycling on city roads. Current suggestions include increased enforcement of existing speed limits, extend non-motorized space by creatively covering drainage ditches while protecting natural buffers and aquifer recharge, and exploring best practices elsewhere. Certainly there are more.
Patience for an island-wide transportation plan is rapidly coming to an end. The community expects an island-wide traffic and transportation plan with prioritized projects that not only address connectivity, but also using alternative transportation modes including public transit, ridesharing and non-motorized transportation.
Concerning water, briefly, the city does not know either how much water we are using or how much water we have. These questions need to be answered before our island build-out goes much further.
Finally, the shoreline management plan must be revised by 2011. This won’t be an easy process. Again, it will be necessary to structure a plan that includes input from all islanders. The health and longtime well-being of our shorelines depends on the public’s overall understanding of what deters shoreline erosion and maintains healthy marine life. Therefore, I’d urge the council to move ahead on this as soon as possible.
