Plan doesn’t slow flow of water concerns

Does housing project go far enough with ‘affordable’?

If you’ve ever worried about turning on your faucet and nothing coming out you’re not alone.

Because of population growth and the fact that Bainbridge Island relies on a sole-source aquifer for drinking water, some residents have that concern.

EA Engineering hydrogeologist consultant Dave Nazy told the City Council Jan. 21 that’s not likely to happen. He came up with various models in the city’s Groundwater Management Plan for the next 100 years that he said are accurate to determine what could happen.

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He said EA Engineering worked with a town in Eastern Washington where its Ice Age aquifer doesn’t get a lot of recharge. That aquifer could be pumped dry. But BI doesn’t have anything like that.

On BI the bigger concern would be pumping water levels so low that seawater would get into it.

“That’s an unacceptable consequence,” he said, adding that’s why the amount of groundwater withdrawn must be monitored.

An analysis says there would be enough water to accommodate growth, which aims to produce more affordable housing on BI. However, monitoring would need to be ramped up also for wells and streams, the memo says. The first two stages of the GMP are nearly complete—documenting existing conditions and modeling scenarios. Impact mitigation work is underway.

Nazy said the scenarios they came up with will be a good predictive tool over time, but could change due to new stresses, such as climate change and population growth. The scenarios look at groundwater recharge, sea-level rise and population growth/pumping under various circumstances.

Some of the questions councilmembers asked included: What if we can’t sustain water withdraws, shouldn’t people live where water can be used more efficiently and what about water reuse?

Councilmember Clarence Moriwaki said he was glad to see that water use actually has decreased compared to growth in Winslow so water conservation must be working.

Councilmember Joe Deets wondered if the city could enforce water conservation measures. He said water usage is some of the worst in Kitsap County on the south end of BI.

BI Public Works director Chris Wierzbicki said charging higher rates is about the only way to control water use. “We don’t have a lot of control over individual use.”

But Deets responded: “There’s a huge education component here. Rich people paying for it is not sustainable.”

To answer some of the other questions, Wierzbicki said the models looked at maximum population growth over the next 20 years in BI’s Neighborhood Centers of Island Center, Rolling Bay and Lynwood Center. He said BI does not have a reuse plan yet, so that wasn’t included in the scenarios.

He said two watersheds west of Eagle Harbor are a concern for water, but those areas aren’t set for growth anyway. Water use has gone down due to less irrigation and more efficient fixtures.

BI has three large water systems—one owned by the city, the other two by Kitsap Public Utility District. He said it makes sense to combine the three to “spread out the pain” when it comes to withdrawing water. He said it will take time and money to invest in strategies to deal with population growth.

Councilmember Kirsten Hytopoulos said this process has been frustrating and more updates were needed. She said the focus of this GMP seems to be to justify population growth over the next 20 years. But what about beyond that?

She said because of BI’s proximity to Seattle there will be huge pressure for even more population growth later on. The only thing that will control that is the lack of water. She thinks the population number will be much more than 70,000 in the 100-year scenario. She thinks it will be more like Mercer Island—130,000. “Why would we not grow like that 100 years from now unless it shows we can’t do that,” she said, adding water likely would have to be pumped in from off BI.

Affordable housing project

The council also talked about affordable housing at the meeting. In building affordable housing, BI has always wanted to make sure people who work here can afford to live here.

In explaining the city’s project on Winslow Way, Sharon Lee of the Low Income Housing Institute said a person making $42,000 a year or two people making $48,000 could qualify, as could a family of four making $71,800.

“That does cover a lot of people in the service industry,” she said, along with teachers, bus drivers, home health aids, store clerks, animal care workers, etc.

It would not cover people who make minimum wage, as that would be $35,000 a year. But even that might be possible if the project can obtain more public subsidy, she said. That may be possible because state leaders have shown interest in at least $500 million being made available for such projects. “It’s a good time to get matching funds,” she said.

Councilmember Jon Quitslund asked if there could be a scoring system to make sure local people are housed there. He said he knows they can’t discriminate, but there must be some way to favor locals.

Lee said the institute uses targeted marketing in Seattle to fight gentrification and displacement of people who were forced out. “There are neighborhood preference-type policies that allow for that,” she said, adding Bellevue asks for referrals for affordable housing residents because they “don’t want Seattle” workers there either.

As for the project itself, the institute would construct 90 units at a cost of over $49 million for a mix of household sizes, ages and income levels. There would be one- to three-bedroom units available at 60% of the Area Median Income. It is envisioned the ground floor would be for commercial enterprises, along with parking for 108 stalls. The projected height is 45 feet. There would be green space in a plaza with outdoor seating and opportunities for community events.

City manager Blair King said the city’s portion of the project would be paid for with its one-tenth of 1% sales tax.

Councilmember Leslie Schneider is concerned the commercial space would be too expensive for small businesses.

Lee said new construction is always too high for small and minority-owned businesses; vacant retail storefronts are usually cheaper. “But we need to come up with some way to make it affordable,” she said, especially because of the desire to have retail community art there. The same goes for the desire to have childcare or an early learning center, as those “are difficult to finance.”

BI road preservation

The council also again discussed how to raise more money for the Roads Preservation Program. In the end, it agreed to survey the public to see how it would prefer to pay for it.

King said staff would research further into the council priorities of: increasing the property tax levy; approving councilmatic bonds that the city OKs without public consent; and/or using smart meters for parking.

King said in his experience parking meters have not been popular, but Schneider said they could be on BI. That way visitors also would help pay for roads. People could park in front of the stores where they want to go. People could avoid paying by walking or using transit. She admitted people don’t like paying for things they’ve gotten for free in the past, but she’d still like to know how much revenue meters could bring in.

Mayor Ashley Mathews said people might like that better than a levy lift. Hytopoulos said she’d support spending $2.9 million a year on street upkeep.

Councilmember Brenda Fantroy-Johnson said she doesn’t want BI roads to get as bad as in her hometown of Detroit, Mich. She said paying $20 more a month with a levy might be a good option. But she said they need to make a decision. “We don’t want to kick this down the road to the next council.”

Deets said he doesn’t know which option is best yet, but they need to prioritize which roads need to be fixed—the ones that are used most by motorists that can be done at the best price.

Moriwaki said safety is important because, “We’re liable for that. We have to protect our citizens.”

Finance director DeWayne Pitts said councilmatic bonds are paid by reallocating existing funds. A $15 million bond would cost about $1 million a year to pay off.

Other options included: voter-approved bonds; sales tax hike; and car tab fee increase.

The city has 282 miles of paved road; 29.5% of them are very poor to fair. Between 2014-22 $500,000 a year was spent on road maintenance. In 2019, an analysis suggested spending $1.8 million a year. Nothing changed until 2023, when $1 million a year has been budgeted. For the future, from $2.5 million to $5 million will be needed. Minor repairs can cost $5,000 per city block, compared with street reconstruction that can cost $250,000.

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