A group of volunteer woodworkers built a custom bus stop for the Ferncliff Village affordable housing project. Tad Sooter has the story….

Island woodworkers donate new Ferncliff Village bus stop
By Tad Sooter

It’s not often a school bus shelter can elicit awe. The new wooden shelter at the Ferncliff Village affordable housing development isn’t an average bus stop.

“It’s pretty spectacular,” Bill Luria of the Bainbridge Housing Resources Board said of the stout but elegant fir shelter. “It’s a pretty massive structure.”

Luria is just as impressed with the shelter’s builders.

Members of the non-profit Bainbridge Community Woodshop and employees of Salisbury Woodworking contributed about 200 hours to the project on Ferncliff Avenue, which wrapped up in late November.
 The Ferncliff shelter was the latest community service effort completed by Community Woodshop volunteers, who regularly donate their time and expertise to assist fellow non-profits. Kilbane said the service projects meet a need on the island. They also help the Community Woodshop raise its profile while it pursues its overarching goal of creating a shared workshop on Bainbridge.

Continue reading →

Efforts to create and preserve lower cost housing options on the island suffered two recent setbacks.

First, the City Council decided to de-fund the city’s Housing Trust Fund, which supports local affordable housing projects.

Then came news that the Housing Resources Board was delaying the start of the Ferncliff community land trust project by one year. Later phases will likely be delayed a three or more years.

The two most politicized words on Bainbridge Island are “density” and “water.” *

Having those two words attached to a proposed ordinance aimed at encouraging sustainable design and affordable housing ensured it would go through the wringer of staff revisions, several City Council-ordered rewrites and intense public scrutiny.

After about a year of work, the version that arrived before the council on Wednesday was trimmed and polished enough for unanimous approval.

Some supporters still worry that the ordinance, which establishes density bonuses and flexible design standards to encourage the construction of earth-friendly housing affordable for to middle-income people, may now have limited appeal to developers.

And critics say the ordinance may alter the island’s small town feel with high-density developments that draw down limited groundwater supplies.

The ordinance is likely to achieve one of it’s key goals: allow the Housing Resources Board to move forward with its planned 48-unit project on Ferncliff Avenue.

For more, read my story here.

*There’s also “Winslow Way,” but that’s a combination of two words.

The Housing Resources Board unveiled its plans for an affordable housing project on Ferncliff Avenue that incorporates several sustainable design elements. The plans received mixed reviews. Potential residents loved it. People already in the neighborhood panned the project’s potential impact on the area and its architectural style.

To read my coverage of last Friday’s unveiling and public meeting, click here.

Below you’ll find more design renderings and other basic information on the project.

Continue reading →

Affordable housing advocates will give the first glimpse on Friday of designs for a 24-home development planned for Winslow’s east edge.

“We’re building a neighborhood that we hope will be seen as an asset to the entire community,” said Carl Florea, director of the Housing Resources Board, the island group leading the Ferncliff Avenue project’s development.

The resident-owned homes would incorporate earth-friendly features, common-use green spaces and an overall neighborhood design that puts out a welcome mat to walkers and cyclists rather than cars. The project would also add to the island’s nearly non-existent stock of homes affordable to middle-income earners.

Continue reading →