Bainbridge Island’s advisory Harbor Commission was busy crafting designs for a new city dock well before the planning workshops for Waterfront Park began last month.
The city held two planning meetings in June to discuss potential upgrades for the park and dock, and is now circulating a survey to gather more input. A 30-minute update on the planning process is scheduled for tonight’s City Council meeting.
Members of the Harbor Commission feel the discussion so far has centered heavily on the park’s uplands. They hope to rekindle interest in rebuilding the aging city dock.
The commission is circulating refined conceptual drawings for an expanded dock. The new dock would feature four fingers with space for more visiting yachts as well as club sailboats, rowing shells and kayak rentals. The plan calls for moving the head of the dock to the west of the existing boat ramp.
Public Dock Plan Drawing 06.01.13 by tsooter
The city designated $1.85 million of a recent Washington State Ferries settlement to upgrading Waterfront Park, and plans to seek additional grants. Many visions for the park were floated during the June workshops, and not every idea will fit in the final project.
In an open letter to the boating community this week, Harbor Commission Chair Mark Leese said he felt boaters were underrepresented in the discussion. He urged more boaters to get involved:
A message to our boating community,
As you may know two workshops were held in June to obtain citizens input on how the redevelopment of the Waterfront Park and City Dock should be redeveloped utilizing the allocated $1.85 million from the WSF fund.
At these workshops the focus was very much on the ideas for the Waterfront Park and very little on the City Dock. This was partly due to very few boaters being present at the meetings, but also because it appeared that the facilitators were more interested and comfortable in the groups identifying the park developments than the more specific issues of the City Dock.
The voice of the boaters therefore needs to be heard to redress this imbalance or we may find that that the Council will allocate the majority of the fund to the redevelopment of the Park and not the Dock
I attach a questionnaire compiled by the Planning Dept., which I urge you complete and return as soon as possible. Heather Beckmann advises that she will be briefing the Council of the initial findings on July 17th.
FYI I attach a proposed plan and rendering of the City Dock that the Harbor Commission has been working on for nearly three years. It is conceptual only but please do make your comments know to Heather Beckmann of the Planning Dept.
Thanks,
Mark Leese,
Chair, BI Harbor Commission
