If Bainbridge’s commercial areas had a beauty and ambience contest, there’s little doubt that Island Center would finish last.

Instead of the Tudor distinctiveness of Lynwood Center or the rustic appeal of Rolling Bay, Island Center features the bold reds and blues of a strip center.

And one can’t ignore the traffic along Miller Road, the major thoroughfare on the west side of the island.

To turn that around and create what one area resident calls “a neighborhood feeling instead of a strip mall,” a citizen committee suggests building another street to the east of Miller Road that will offer a pedestrian and bike-friendly access to what is now the “back door” of Island Center’s businesses.

“We were trying to make things pedestrian friendly, and give the area a village feel where people can walk from one business to another,” said committee member Katy Klinkenberg.

The new street would be an easterly continuation of Battle Point Drive, turn southward behind Sequoia Center and the businesses along the east side of Miller, cross New Brooklyn Road to the east of the existing businesses, and rejoin the main road at the Island Center hall.

“That idea did not come from the committee itself, but came out of public comments made during the process, and a lot of people seemed to like it,” committee co-chair and neighbor Ann Lovejoy said.

The committee posed three alternative plans for the area.

One, called the “linear park” plan, would add mixed-use development along the east side of Miller, concentrated on the city-owned property now used for parking and occasional material storage.

Under that plan, the new road would not be built until “a threshold of new development” is reached.

That plan calls for bike lanes and green space on the west side of Miller, which would remain residential.

The second plan, called the “village” concept, envisions new clusters of higher-density development on both sides of Miller.

The third alternative, called the “green spine,” would leave Miller much as it is, but focus development along the new road, which would be paid for by the property owners but built to city standards.

All of the scenarios call for voluntary up-zones, and all call for the new road to be built by the property owners to city standards.

“The road is not a foregone conclusion. It depends on the property owners,” said Klinkenberg.

City long-range planner Kathy Cook said she has had some discussions with the owner of the narrow parcel on the north side of New Brooklyn that would be most affected. Cook said that while the owner, who lives in Hawaii, is attracted to the possibility of greater density, she has come to no firm conclusions.

For the immediate future, the major problem facing the area is the high-speed, heavy traffic along Miller, which makes the area bike and pedestrian-hostile, according to the report.

“We can’t change the fact that Miller is going to be heavily used, much as we might like to,” said Lovejoy, a Miller Road resident. “We have to try to mitigate the effect of that traffic on the neighborhood.”

The plans also call for some mixed-use development to the north of Bainbridge Gardens. All call for increased parking for the Grand Forest and Island Center Hall, and for a network of trails through the area.

The spot density increases are a response to the island Comprehensive Plan, which calls for some higher densities in the three neighborhood service centers.

“We were handed that,” Klinkenberg said, “but having people closer together is a better concept than suburban sprawl.”

The plan has a 20-year time horizon, and does not envision immediate implementation.

The plan, including the three alternative development scenarios, will go to the Planning Commission for review. A workshop and public hearing will be scheduled for later this summer, Cook said.

After those hearings, the plan will move to the City Council, where it will first be considered by the Land Use Committee, and ultimately by the full council.

When finally approved, the plan will be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan.

One issue the committee could not address, although it was keenly aware of it, was appearance.

“We believe the area needs to be made more attractive to help the businesses, but design was not really within the scope of our assignment,” Klinkenberg said.