What comes down may go back up.

Case in point: a two-building mixed-use project planned for the north side of High School Road, just east of American Marine Bank.

Two weeks after asking developers to sink the project further into the earth to conceal its parking garage, Bainbridge Island Planning Commissioners Thursday asked that more retail space be added to the project – even if that means making it taller again.

“I’m at a loss what to do here,” said Sean Parker, planning commission chair, as commissioners wrestled with “inconsistencies” between High School Road zoning that allows buildings 45 feet high, and design guidelines meant to make those buildings appealing.

Under discussion for the second time was a controversial and yet-unnamed development proposed by Base Capital of Bellevue.

The project would include two buildings, one with 60 residential units, the other with 51 “extended stay” hotel rooms. A small retail component would be included on the ground floor.

The buildings would flank a public plaza and interior courtyards, leaving a visual corridor to undeveloped land behind the buildings.

Approximately two-thirds of the property, all on the north side away from the street, would be left as open space.

Thursday, developer Franco Mola unveiled revised plans that showed one of the buildings “really pushed into the ground,” leaving its apex 41 feet above grade.

But commissioners and neighbors were still unhappy. Some said that without retail space along High School Road the building offered nothing of value to passing pedestrians or neighbors.

Aesthetic concerns were also raised, with commissioner Donna McKinney saying the project “really has the appearance of a big block.”

Mola said the building’s facade could be designed to overcome such objections.

Among the proposals that met with the general favor of commissioners was an articulated roofline that would break up the vertical plane of the building.

“I don’t want to come here and fight anybody,” Mola said. “I want to come here and do a good project.”

Neighbors, though, renewed their complaints that the project is simply too large and out of character with the surrounding area.

Most vociferous have been the residents of the Virginia Villa Apartments, who are concerned about the loss of a green space next to their building.

Manager Linda O’Neil questioned the value of the interior plaza, saying, “No one is going to go onto a hotel and apartment property and sit in a courtyard. It’s not going to happen.”

Several also took issue with the city’s parking requirements, saying they’re too low.

Commissioners mused whether the project is in fact out of scale with rest of the the High School Road district.

Commissioner Charles Averill, though, said that question is essentially settled by zoning, which allows buildings of the size proposed by Base Capital.

Parker suggested that more retail could be added, perhaps without adding height.

Action on the project was delayed, with Mola asked to retool the project’s appearance based on the commission’s comments.

No time frame was given for its reappearance before the commission.