voice of bainbridge

Joe should go grocery shopping

Joe should go grocery shopping. He would immediately understand why people are not so happy with what he considers a wonderful economy: prices are now sky high for eggs, any type of food, most products including gas. Meanwhile if unemployment is low, many jobs have such low pay that people cannot make a decent living, especially with the high cost of housing, high rents and high interest rates. So Joe, you can boost as you want about good stats but in their daily life, outside the privileges of your White House, the average Joe and Jill are not economy happy. Don't even get me going about the genocide in Gaza you have fueled with US taxpayers money, making you and us active complicit of war criminals. But I am sure you'll humbly recognize those failings in your upcoming state of the union. You only have to go grocery shopping.

In memory of Lin Kamer Walker

I just learned about Lin's death and I wanted to say how generous and gifted she was. She designed the beautiful logo of Voice of Bainbridge.

Unfortunately, the audio-file of the interview we had recorded in... 2004 (can you believe it) has been lost when the site that was hosting it disappeared :(

Merci mille fois Lin and farewell.

Philippe

 

 

Where does the/our 'garbage' go?

Where does/our the garbage go? this article was published in 2007. Have things changed?

Planning Commission Meeting, June 13 2019 . 7 to 10 PM

Don't forget the GoFundMe effort!

Planning Commission Regular Meeting
June 13, 2019  7:00 - 10:00 PM

AGENDA

 

7:00 PM      CALL TO ORDER

                   Call to Order, Agenda Review, Conflict Disclosure

7:05 PM      PUBLIC COMMENT

                   Accept public comment on off agenda items.

 

7:10  PM     WINSLOW HOTEL (PLN50880 SPR)

                   Review and Recommendation

7:10 – 7:40 PM     Staff Presentation

7:40 – 8:20 PM     Applicant Presentation

8:20 – 9:10 PM     Planning Commission Review

9:10 – 9:50 PM     Public Comment

9:50 – 9:55 PM     Planning Commission Recommendation

9:55 PM      NEW/OLD BUSINESS

10:00 PM    ADJOURN

 

 

Please note doors will open at 6:30 PM.

City Council Study Session June 4, video

The Winslow Hotel project was presented by the PCD staff to the Council Members before a very small audience but the Council members were aware of the standing room only attendance at the design hearing and mentioned several times they had received emails and were concerned about the folks who could watch the video about this project. If you want to watch go here and start at 1 hour 22 ( ends at 1 hour 51). Obviously the Council members have heard from their constituents but they reiterated they were not part of the process according to the present rules. A few questions were asked about the noise, the traffic, the jobs eventually created, but nothing very precise or detailed. The next key meeting and that time the public will be allowed to ask questions is June 13. In the meantime if you feel concerned you can still email the city planning department and the Council members, ask the local media to report, ask BCB to organize one or several podcasts, (Bainbridge Community Broadcasting) get in touch with VOB at voiceofbainbridge at gmail.com if you are willing to record a podcast with us, or record one yourself as now any Iphone will do the job.

LISTEN(1.24 minutes)
I am a bit rusty and recorded this in a rush. Give it a try.

Looking at the comments about the Winslow Hotel project

As there are many comments recorded (scroll down the file) all in pdf format that requires downloading, it will take a while to read them all (146+?). I have started posting a few of them on Voice of Bainbridge. The ones in support (so far I found  only two) can be selected by clicking on the 'a hotel W positive comment' category on the left of the screen. For the many more comments "concerned/against" click on the 'a hotel Winslow concerned comment' category. Thank you to Peter Denis for his February 17 knowledgeable contribution. Will he be heard?

"New hotel will bring change to Winslow" or "dramatically change Winslow"? Opinion letter by Virginia Rice

"New hotel will bring change to Winslow" is the headline chosen by the Bainbridge Review that published Virginia Rice's letter as an opinion on May 7. That's almost one month ago from this post of June 6. Gone missing from the headline is the term "dramatically" that Virginia used in her first sentence. Later she writes "the plans and project updates are available on the city website": my question is how easily accessible are they if you don't have the magic url ? How many "concerned", essentially negative or very negative comments from citizens had already been recorded but buried in the city website (see below the screenshot of 90 of them)? How did the two main traditional local media report about this significant democratic (ie from the people) outcry about/against a project? I could not see any (yet). Nor any concern expressed publicly by our elected officials (yet) although the protest from the demos has been piling up for a while 'on the city website". How many as of today? Who read them?

There had been one hour mandatory "public participation" meeting that took place on November 26, 2018. What happened? Then what? What's next?

Dear City, comment by Victoria Josslin - In memoriam

Our dear friend Victoria died on May 12, a few days after sending this email to city hall.

From: Victoria Josslin
Sent: Wednesday, May 8, 2019 2:32 PM 
To: PCD Subject: Hotel Complex 
Dear City,   I am writing, as many others are, to ask the City of Bainbridge Island to deny the application for an 87‐room hotel complex on Winslow Way.

I know that you'll get lots of mail about the traffic, noise, and smells that will inevitably be  part of that development, and I agree with those letters.   I want to raise the issue of scale.

Bainbridge Island is a small town. Most ‐ if not all ‐ of us who live here treasure that  part of our life. The sheer size ‐ 132 parking places? ‐ of this project will change the experience of life on the Island. 

While that concern, important as it is, may sound vague, surely concerns about the scale of traffic, waste, sewers, and  calls upon City services are measurable.   Finally, I encourage you to look at the business plan, if possible. What will happen if this project, once built, turns out to be impractical? Rather than an outsized eyesore, will we be left with an abandoned outsize eyesore?  Thank you for considering these points.  

Victoria Josslin 

Hotel Winslow Project Info on City Hall website and another project still pending in Poulsbo

Here is the url to see the file on the Hearing Examiner page for the 253 Winslow Way W parcel. I first decided to look for articles about the project and the developer.

From Googling the name of the owner of the parcel (Michael Burns) + Bainbridge Island I found this August 30, 2017 article by Nick Twietmeyer in the Bainbridge Review that explains his rationale for building a then 60-room luxury hotel downtown. Tad Sooter mentioned the project in the June 28 issue of the Kitsap Sun but without input from the owner or the architect. In June 2014, the Kitsap Sun informs us that Michael bought the former city hall in Poulsbo to build a hotel. This project morphed into a building with 58 studios and one bedroom units according to the Kitsap Sun in April 2016. One year later the project Old City Hall Apartments, is up for public comments with 74 units and 95 off-street parking spaces. I have not found any article about the completed building. I went to Poulsbo to have a look: the project is not finalized yet, there is only an empty lot. See pictures below at the bottom of this post.

City Hall told me it was now going to be an 80 one bedroom units, with 6 two bedrooms units, including at least 106 off street (underground) parking spots. There are still some technical points to be solved (about sight distance and engineering issues). The deadline for completing the process is coming soon. Michael Burns is also mentioned in the sales of several properties on Bainbridge and Poulsbo reported in May 2016 for 17.5 million and 5.93 million by Tad Sooter for the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal.

Public comments about the hotel

You can find the public comments sent to the planning department by scrolling down the document. As of this morning I counted 146 comments and apparently some people wrote several times. Unfortunately, to access each comment you have to download a pdf format :( so there is not a quick way to read one after the next or to aggregate them into one document, except by copy/pasting 146 files.

A tedious task but that would be worth doing to have a global sense of the arguments put forward. Many express probably the same concerns about the size (excessive), the negative impact on traffic, quietness, general 'feel' of the neighborhood? "Below is one comment I picked.

Design Board hearing about the Hotel Winslow project on Monday June 3rd

The city staff had never seen such a crowd for a design board hearing on this monday June 3rd at around 4pm. They said they were happy to have such an attendance of almost 100 people. That sounded like a strange reaction to me as when asked how many felt positive about the project, only a few hands were raised. As the public could not ask any questions (although a few were asked anyway) I can only imagine the level of frustration at the lack of communication but maybe only it's only me?

In any case people were able to listen to architect Jim Cutler who sounded a bit irritated to have to explain once more his work and the repeated efforts his team made to accommodate the never ceasing complaints of the neighbors and community at large. More meetings are planned although I wonder if they are going to be much more productive. I'll try to have the various parties explain themselves via interviews if I am able to secure them.

Apparently the city council wants to hear what's going on at today's meeting but no questions or comments will be taken from the public.

The planning commission meeting where the public will be allowed to talk is on June 13 at 7pm (if nothing changes).

 [email protected] is where you can email your comments to the planning department for the council members [email protected].

I was surprised to find so little information available on line but maybe I did not look hard enough. 

 

Comment Jeanie Johstone

From: Jeanie Johnstone 

Monday, May 6, 2019 10:10 AM
Sent: To: PCD

Subject: Winslow hotel project

I would like to voice our concerns about the 87 room hotel project that is proposed. The development will bring a significant increase in traffic, particularly when events begin and end at the same time, causing major backups on a relatively short street length where stop signs regulate traffic. Parking will definitely be a problem since there already is very limited parking in that area and overflow parking from hotel guests and events will move onto the streets. Even though the new plan indicates concerts will be held on a lawn rather than an amphitheater and there will be a 'shell' to supposedly reduce noice, the reality is, when there is a concert that sound will carry throughout much of town. Even the small groups that have performed on the Green can be heard in town and down by the water. I hope these legitimate concerns, not just from me but from the residents of Winslow, will be taken seriously and that more modifications, hopefully to reduce the size of the hotel and the outdoor venue, will be implemented.

Jean Johnstone

About the Hotel Winslow project (on Winslow Way)

I went to City Hall to have a look at the files for the Hotel Winslow project. It's not easy to figure what it will look like, how tall the buildings are going to be. The plan seems to be to keep the big old fir tree (excellent idea) and build around it. I wonder a bit how it is possible without damaging its roots but what do I know. Would be good to know a bit more and have a maquette/model? Here are a few pictures I took. Not sure when the public hearing will take place. Sorry my system sometimes does not position the pictures right :( Just click on a picture to see better (as if you did not know).

It is possible to look the project on line but I was told the files took a very long time to load: PIN 50880

 

Let us talk?

This April 2O email by Robin Simons mentions a meeting to take place between the proponents of the hotel and a few concerned neighbors.

What happened?

From: Robin Simons 

Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2019 1:50 PM

To: Mike Burns; Colleen Redfield

Cc: Natalia Ilyin; Jack Sheridan; Olivia Sontag

Subject: Fwd: conditions for the Winslow Hotel

Attachments: CONDITIONS 4.16.19.docx

Dear Mike, Jim, and Bruce,

Thank you very much for asking to meet with those of us who live to the west of the Winslow Hotel. We appreciate your reaching out. We know that you've made changes to the design since you submitted your application to the city and we're looking forward to seeing the changes. We recently submitted a list of conditions that we're hoping the city will incorporate into the CUP, based on your earlier plans.

We believe these conditions will mitigate some of the congestion, parking and noise concerns we foresee in downtown Winslow. We look forward to learning more about your plans and discussing these concerns in our upcoming meeting.

Best,

Robin Simons on behalf of Winslow Neighbors

Comment by Tracy Zhu (owner of Tango Zulu)

From: 

Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2019 3:44 PM

To: Olivia Sontag 

Subject: proposed Winslow Hotel 

I own Tango Zulu, a small retail business in Winslow Green. I wish to express my support of the proposed Winslow Hotel, which I believe will increase commerce in the downtown area.

Small businesses located west of Madison, in particular, are likely to benefit from the development. Some area residents have expressed concern to me about the hotel providing adequate parking for its guests, and I trust that is a subject you will or have already addressed in the permitting process. I look forward to seeing the finished product! Best regards,

Tracy Zhu

Owner Tango Zulu 

Comment by Jane Allan

From: JANE Allan 

Sent: Friday, February 22, 2019 5:25 PM

To: PCD

Subject: WINSLOW HOTEL PROPOSAL                

TO THE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION, CITY OF BAINBRIDGE ISLAND 

I had not heard of the Winslow Hotel development until just recently and was very surprised.    During  the early days of developing a plan for the Island under the Growth Management Act there was a focus  on having residents live near downtown and local shops to service local residents and visitors.  This  effort has worked out.   

There are a number of condos and houses that allow people to walk downtown  and to the ferry.  The downtown merchants are diverse and seem to be doing well.   There are  apartments condos, apartments and homes along Winslow Way, Wood Avenue, Grow Avenue. 

Now  there is a proposal the ”Winslow Hotel” which is much more than a hotel.  It is 3 stories, 75 rooms,  banquet room, restaurant, bar spa and amphitheater.  All of that !!  

I just couldn’t  believe the numbers of units proposed and the breadth of the project.   A much scaled back development  and one with condos or long term rentals  and a much smaller  number of homes seems much more appropriate.   

To have 70 hotel rooms seems way out of proportion.    An amphitheater ?  Really?     

We already have waterfront park that is used, to some extent in that  manner.    To have parking for all of the people visiting, workers at the hotel, etc.  will add  significantly more parking and cars in that area and into the downtown.  

70 plus cars will be added to the down town. There is something to “the tip of the iceberg” effect – where too much is put is put in one space. The proposed development is pasted that point.

Sincerely,  

Jane Allan 

221 Wyatt Way, 103, Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110 

Comment from Kent Salisbury

From: Kent Salisbury

Sent: Friday, February 22, 2019 3:29 PM

To: PCD

Subject: Comment on Proposed Hotel

Ms Sontag,   I am out of state currently and have just had the proposal for the "3 story hotel" forwarded to me. Here are  the  comments I made to our neighbors, and I send them to you. I hope they will be considered. Thank you,  

Kent Salisbury, 647 Janelle Pl. NW. 

Hi Debby and neighbors.  

No objection to the concept of the hotel, but it seems like a cart before the horse to me. Are our water aquifer and  power resources adequate for this continued growth? Where are the restaurants on Bainbridge to support the  developments already under way? Where are the roads able to accommodate current traffic demands? Where will the  service people live who will staff the hotel? Check out 305 at 8 AM and add those folks, assuming they can afford to get  to Bainbridge from Poulsbo or beyond. Then turn them around at day's end and you have LA traffic duplicated. Check  out the depleted inventory at Safeway at week's end and the exhorbitant prices at ACE Hardware (with no convenient  competition). What is the projected clientele for the hotel...Leisure tourists, families, business conventions, guests of  island residents? What "star" level hotel is planned? Well, enough rhetorical stuff from here. Looks like this hotel log is  already rolling pretty fast . Given these concerns I am concerned about the project's viability as well.   Our best to all.

Comment by Barb Pettit

From: Barb Pettit 

Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2019 3:41 PM

To: PCD Subject: PLN50880 Winslow Hotel Project

Comments To the Design Review team.

Others have commented thoughtfully on the challenges of parking, traffic, pedestrian safety, noise/light pollution for the proposed Winslow Hotel, and I endorse those concerns as well. But, in the end, it's the scale that has pushed me to comment on the project.

This is not a neighborhood infill along the lines of the Eagle Harbor Inn. It's a monolith with 75 rooms and . Even with lots of glass, the building has long, unrelieved elevations to the east and west where it faces adjacent properties. The service driveway on the west is an eyesore and a noise concern for western neighbors who have to listen to delivery trucks throughout the day. The guest driveway to leading to parking areas on the east, with row upon row of hotel room windows behind it, does little to interface with the residential scale of the Marge Williams Center and the building housing IVC and other small businesses. I was curious about the capacities of the various inns and hotels on the island in order to get a sense of the scale of this project. There is really no comparable lodging, as you can see below.

Shoehorned into the intimate neighborhood of west Winslow Way, the size and scale of the proposed hotel looms even larger.

Eagle Harbor Inn - 8 rooms/townhouses

Inn at Pleasant Beach - 12 rooms

Quality Inn & Suites on Hildebrand - 45 rooms

Marshall Suites on High School Road - 51 suites

Islandwood - 53 rooms

Please consider the scale of this project as you review it, as well as its impact on residents in the neighborhood who regularly walk and drive on Winslow Way.

Thank you,

Barb Pettit

239 Parfitt Way SW #1B

 

Comment by Natalia Ilyin

From: Natalia Ilyin 

Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2019 10:41 PM

To: PCD

Subject: Concerns regarding Winslow Hotel project, permit numberPLN50880 SPR/CUP

First, I would like to request that the City reschedule the Public Hearing on this project application. April 25th at 10 AM is a bad time for concerned citizens who work 9-5. Working citizens cannot get to a hearing scheduled at 10 am in the morning. This scheduling on a weekday morning gives the impression--however false-- that the City is trying to limit public participation in the hearing process. My concerns regarding the plans for the Winslow Hotel:

1. Noise. The hotel owner envisions this hotel as a wedding destination.The plans include an outdoor amphitheater. I am concerned that amplified wedding music will drift over the neighborhood constantly in the summer months. The architect assures us that no one will play amplified music, they'll only have weddings. That assurance is unenforceable. Am I supposed to go over there and rip someone's pick-up off their harp in the middle of a wedding? I would like an assurance, attached to the property, not to the owner, that states that no amplified music will be played outside. We are assured that amplified music will only be played inside. Will the hotel seal their guests in? Will there not be any access to the planned terraces? Open windows mean noise. This needs to be resolved. I live right next door to the development. When there was a bar farther away from me on that same property, I could hear every word of the music every weekend night and the sound of the bass kept me awake every weekend. I had to call the police twice to enforce the code. To give you an idea of the way sound moves up Winslow Way, When they have jazz bands on Winslow Green in the Summer, I must close my windows in order not to hear the music clearly. And jazz bands are not wedding bands. Neighbors cannot be expected to have the bass line of "Single Ladies" fill their weekends during the Summer.
2. Garbage smells and dumping. The architects assure us that they have contracted with the City to pick up garbage later in the day. That's a good start. But it doesn't cut down on the truck backing sounds, or the constant sound of bins of bottles being thrown into recycling by restaurant staff. The garbage pick up is planned for the west side of the hotel, where people' live ten feet from the property line. If the plan put the garbage on the other side of the building, no one would be disturbed. The closest neighbors on the east side are two office buildings.
3.  Parking and increased congestion on Winslow Way. Winslow way is a two-way street that already bears heavy ferry traffic hourly throughout the day. I am concerned about additional traffic on Winslow Way. We have a school bus stop right by the planned hotel. I am concerned about safety. The architect tells us that his parking advisors "don't build the church parking lot for Easter morning." And so, estimating 179 car capacity need, he has planned 90 spaces, and plans to lease space from other parking areas. The floated notion that "no one is going to be using cars anymore" is idealistic, not to 2 say privileged. Please don't let the Famous Pavilion Parking Plan Mistaker happen in this case. Evidently the Pavilion was supposed to have leased space too. That fell through after the building began. Can we not do this again?
4. Cooking smells. The architect assures us that he has put the kitchen exhaust between two gables on the front of the building. How this will affect the drifting smells of 70 wedding party salmon dinners? Are the neighbors doomed to spend June enveloped in the smell of grilling salmon while being bombarded with "How Long Will I Love You?"
5.  What happens when the sewage treatment facility belches? They have this on-going problem with the same treatment system over at Islandwood. What happens if it fails? Will 70 patrons then flush toilets into the downtown sewage system? Can the sewage system take that? 6. The Aquifer. Why would this property, which is very big for a downtown building, be granted a variance to build a well, when tax payers who live in the neighborhood are not allowed to have wells, and the alarm has already been sounded about aquifer issues with new building on the Island? Granting such a variance seems short-sighted and seems to favor wealthy developers over neighbors.
6. I support the proposal for a green buffer. This proposal was made to the architects last month. The neighbors proposed that they create a 10 foot wide natural buffer between the west side of their building and the property line, to create space for a "wildlife corridor" between the two highly developed properties. We have a surprising amount of wildlife in the area, even now. The center of the block (with the rusty cars) is a bit of a refuge. It's cool to see a Steller's Jay appear on my railing in the morning With a ten foot buffer, he could still feel safe enough to show up.
7. The Redwood will be hard to see by regular people. I think it's too bad that, especially after I fought to save the redwood (I am the person who told Olaf Ribeiro about the tree in the first place) regular people will now not be able to see most of it because of the three story hotel wrapped around it. It will be hidden from passersby. I'm glad that it will be saved, should it survive the building disruption of its roots, but I wish that people that cannot pay luxurious hotel fees would still have a chance to enjoy it. Thank you for reading and hearing my concerns. The building will no doubt be beautiful, but these details need to be dealt with in a transparent way by the City and the architects, in order for the neighbors of this development to be able to welcome it. Sincerely, Natalia Ilyin 325 Winslow Way W. unit 100 Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

Comment by John and Judith Carlbom

From: John W Carlbom 

Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2019 2:11 PM

To: PCD

Subject: Winslow Hotel

Hello,  We live at 144 Hall Brothers Loop NW, Unit 102.  We are concerned about some issues of the proposed hotel. 

1. Are there enough mitigations to handle the runoff water from the property.  This property is extremely close to  Eagle Harbor and the potential for polluted water to reach the Harbor without any interference is large.  We  worry about our own property for this reason. 
2. The sewer on Winslow Way is a concern.  We believe that it is an old piece of pipe.  Will this be replaced?  Will  we be paying for this as well as the hotel?  And what about the road condition of Winslow Way from Grow  Avenue to Madison?  It currently is one of the worst stretches of road on the Island.  Will this be dealt  with?  Again, we will need to pay? 
3.  Traffic.  This is a heavily trafficked area. The intersection of Winslow Way and Madison is a nightmare.  What will  be done  to help ease the pedestrian/vehicular traffic congestion here.  Even if the hotel entry/exit is off another  street than Winslow Way, traffic will be impacted.  What will be done?  No matter which way the exit will be, it  does impact pedestrians and vehicular traffic. 
4.  Amphitheater?  Do we really need this?  While the area is zoned commercial, it seems that an amphitheater  would increase the sound in an area that already has issues with noise.  We are concerned about the noise from  the restaurant/ bar for this same reason.  However, the restaurant/bar noise could be manageable while  amphitheater noise does not seem to be quite as easily managed.  Ask us about 4th of July.  Winslow Green  concerts.  The evening commute home. 
5. Parking.  There is already not enough parking in this area.  Often the public parks on our property to reach the  stores downtown.  Or they park in that “empty” lot and takes their chances even if it is posted No Parking.  Or  park in our lots, both upper and lower.  We know that currently, there is not enough parking at Madrone Village  for owners, businesses, and customers.  We know there is a plan to park and shuttle employees from off‐site to  the hotel.  Having lived and dealt with parking here, this doesn’t really seem to be a viable option. 
6. By the way, there is another tree that should be considered for preservation.  There is a pink‐cup magnolia on  the north of the property.  It is very close to the current entrance.  We know that it is not native.  But it is a  large, fine specimen that brings joy in the spring.  It should be saved.  
7. Thank you for your time in reading this email.  We will be present at the next meeting. 

John W Carlbom  Judith G Carlbom