Comp, housing plans; art on BI agenda tonight

By Steven Powell • June 27, 2023 1:30 am

From the Comp and Housing Action plans to artwork for downtown and the new Ted Spearman Justice Center, the Bainbridge Island City Council has a packed agenda for tonight.

The June 27 meeting begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall and on Zoom.

The council will look to approve the public engagement process for the Comprehensive Plan.

The Comp Plan guides growth and establishes the long-range vision for BI, identifying important characteristics that the community desires to retain, promote or foster, city documents say.

Under the state’s Growth Management Act, the Comp Plan must undergo a periodic update. The 2024 update will include planning until 2044. The update must plan to accommodate a portion of the overall growth (population, employment and housing) that is forecast for the Central Puget Sound region (Kitsap, Pierce, King and Snohomish counties). Within a regional process, BI has adopted the following targets. Population of 24,825 now to 29,349 in 2044 and jobs from 8,073 now to 10,000 twenty years from now. Housing targets are in the process of being adopted.

The scoping process will include documenting policy and code changes required to ensure consistency with changes in state law, regional plans and recently adopted local plans that include Winslow Subarea, Housing Action, Sustainable Transportation, Climate Action, Utility System and Capital Facility, along with sea level rise risk assessment.

Also, the council will consider the Planning Commission’s recommendation to adopt the Housing Action Plan.

Public art for the justice center will be discussed. Recommended are four decorative columns at a cost of $150,000.

Five pieces of artwork for the city’s annual “Something New” program will likely be approved. The choices were made by the city’s Public Art Committee. They will be installed for a year in July or August. The program started in 2017. Artist pay has increased from $1,000 to $2,000.

Strawberry (stainless steel and synthetic) by Charles Fitzgerald would go at Town & Country; Aeon 2021 (wood and metal) by Bruce and Shannon Andersen would go at Doc’s; Leaf Spiral (steel and stainless steel) by Ken McCall would go to City Hall; Abstract Woman (painted steel) by Edward McCarthy would go to Waterfront Park; and Unam (stainless steel) also by McCall, would also go to the waterfront.

Meanwhile, the council will look at options to lower the carbon footprint for the justice center. Options include solar panels on the building or over the parking lot.

On the consent agenda, almost $222,000 will be budgeted for design of a new wastewater re-use project. There are two options: enhance effluent and distribute for irrigation-groundwater recharge or a new package treatment plant with irrigation-groundwater recharge.

The council will also decide on a new deputy mayor for the rest of the year. Jon Quitslund has been in that post.