A Bainbridge man was airlifted for treatment after a two-car collision snarled commuter traffic south of the bridge Friday morning.

The accident was reported by a witness at 7:46 a.m. near Agatewood Road. Police said Kevin W. Groves, age 48, of Hyla Avenue on Bainbridge, was northbound on the highway in a Ford pickup when he lost control and slid sideways into the opposite lane.

Groves was ejected from the driver’s window when his truck was struck by an oncoming pickup and spun 360 degrees. He was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was treated for a concussion and a possible fractured arm and facial injuries.

The driver of the second vehicle, Harold L. Souffay, age 59, of Kingston, was not injured. His vehicle, a Toyota pickup, sustained extensive front-end damage, while Groves’ vehicle was totaled.

No citations were issued at the scene, but the accident remains under investigation, Bainbridge Police Officer Bret Lockhart said.

It appeared that Groves lost control when his vehicle drifted off the pavement on the right shoulder, and went into a spin as he tried to re-enter the lane, Lockhart said.

The northbound lane re-opened around 8:30 a.m., and southbound traffic resumed shortly after 9 a.m.

– Douglas Crist

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***Open space talks wide open

The city council’s land-use committee took another step this week toward trying to conform Bainbridge’s open-space requirements to limitations imposed by the Washington Supreme Court.

But almost immediately, they found that proposed solutions raised a new set of problems.

The plan at issue would require all subdivisions to set aside 35 percent of their land area for open space, regardless of lot size – a departure from the current sliding-scale requirement for more open space in large-lot subdivisions than in denser development.

Committee members also propose redefining open space to exclude areas like roads, driveways and storm drains. But in high-density areas, it may not be possible to do all those things.

“In some subdivisions, there just wouldn’t be room to do that,” said committee chair Michael Pollock. “And if we’re talking about concentrating growth in Winslow, that may not be what we want.”

By the end of a half-hour discussion, the panel was talking about a three-tier system, where a subdivider could dedicate land on the tract under development, buy an equivalent amount of land elsewhere, or pay a cash equivalent.

Consultant Randy Young said that might also be problematic, especially if cash payments were mandatory.

The issue arose last summer when the Washington Supreme Court struck down a requirement by the city of Camas that developers set aside 30 percent of each subdivision as open space. That blanket requirement, the court said, constituted a tax prohibited by law.

Set-asides could be required, the court said, only if the city could show that the amount of the set-aside was required to mitigate the impacts of a particular subdivision.

After that decision, Bainbridge re-examined its own ordinance, which requires set-asides of up to 80 percent in the least-dense subdivisions. In higher-density areas, mostly in and around downtown Winslow, no open space is required.

To justify an open-space requirement, Young calculated the percentage of developed land on Bainbridge that would qualify as open space, including parks, city-purchased open-space land, wetlands, private open space and golf courses – a computation that did not include land in private ownership that is essentially untouched.

Young’s tally showed that 35 percent of developed land would qualify as open space. That amount found its way into a draft ordinance, on the premise that new development should contribute the same amount to Bainbridge open space as existing development.

Young did not advocate a 35 percent requirement, because he was wary about including parks and golf courses. “If you think there is absolutely no possibility that you will ever acquire other land for parks, then it might make sense,” he said. “But…a court could see that as a double dipping.”

The committee will consider the matter further at subsequent meetings, hoping to bring a draft ordinance for the whole council for passage before the end of March when a council-imposed moratorium on new subdivisions is set to expire.

That moratorium brought a lawsuit by the county homebuilders’ association.

“I really hope we can do this without extending that moratorium again,” said committee member Debbie Vancil, “but it’s more important to do it right than to do it fast.”

– John Waldo