King 5 News has a story about Grow Community, a large housing
development set to take shape along Wyatt Way and Grow Avenue.
It’s aim is to be fully solar powered and to foster an
earth-friendly lifestyle that’s oriented toward walking, cycling
and growing food.
I had a story about it earlier this month, which you can read
here.
Unlike most big developments on Bainbridge, Grow Community has
drawn little criticism (so far). At a recent public meeting, most
of the concerns were about traffic impacts. The development’s
designers gave assurances that they’d actually be improving the
area’s transportation infrastructure by adding sidewalks and bike
lanes along Wyatt and Grow.
Grow Community will begin building an eventual 137 homes in
May.
The largest housing development since Harbor Square is expected
to break ground on the north end of Winslow by the middle of next
year.
Planned for the eight acres to the west of the Pavilion, the
138-unit Grow Community aims to be a walkable, energy-efficient
neighborhood with a mix of housing types.
“We’re hoping to create a community that doesn’t yet exist,”
said Marja Preston, a planner for Asani, the company that’s
developing the site. “The idea is to create opportunities for more
community interaction through diverse housing and amenities on the
site.”
Grow Community’s preliminary site plan calls for condominiums,
townhouses, rental apartments and single-family homes set along a
wide central trail. Asani plans to incorporate pea-patches,
composting areas, rain gardens and a community hall.
Back when she was a Bainbridge city planner, Preston worked to
get the site listed as pilot project with Forest Trends’ Business
and Biodiversity Offset Program, which aims to strike a balance
between large-scale resource use and environmental
preservation.
In a story
I wrote for the Review in 2007, the plan was generally panned
by other conservationists who were brought to Bainbridge for a
Forest Trends conference. The project site was seen as too small to
have a significant impact, said conservationists who were leading
biodiversity offset projects in Africa that benefit endangered
animals and fragile forests.
Though smaller in scale, the project shouldn’t be discounted, a
South African scientist said.
Don’t call it a biodiversity offset, he said. Call it sound
urban planning.
It looks like that’s what Preston is aiming for, albeit now
through the private sector rather than City Hall.
It might have appeared that a liveaboard was trading his humble
quarters for more palatial digs when the floating 3,400-square-foot
home drifted in to Eagle Harbor on Tuesday.
Instead, the barged-in abode was, in the words of its new owner,
a giant recycling project. Destined for the dump, the home was
rescued by Geoff and Candace Daigle. They promptly planted the
19-year-old house on a plot they’ve owned for years at the head of
the bay.
For my story on the move and plenty of photos from Larry
“Beijing”
Steagall, click here.
And for more info on house moving, check out the Web site of
B.C.-based Nickel Brothers, the company the Daigles employed to
uproot, haul and plant their home.
The Nickel Brothers’ site features dozens of homes available in
south British Columbia, the Seattle-area and Port Townsend that
might qualify for a historic home plaque. But, as islanders saw
with the Cave House on Ferncliff Avenue and the Hoskinson House at the corner of Madison and
Wyatt, walls saturated with history are no protection from the
wrecking ball.
During a Pritchard Park beach walk, the Seattle P-I’s Bainbridge
blogger
Kathe Fraga stumbled upon a solution to the island’s affordable
housing problem.
“Steps away from the undulating shores of the Island’s gentle
waves, this beautiful waterfront home boasts all the amenities that
make Island living so great!” she writes of a rock-bottom priced
charmer with a million dollar view.
Channeling the spirit of a honey-tongued Realtor, Fraga enthuses
about the “sandy ambiance” of this “beachy vintage estate.”
She also plugs its “charmingly rustic” outdoor dining area and
its “green” design and solar heating (“There’s no roof!”).
To see the entire floor plan of this very, very affordable
fixer-upper, visit Fraga’s blog,
Notes from an Island.
A recent social and health services survey ranks affordable
housing as the biggest problem on Bainbridge Island.
Polling various service providers and over 600 residents, the
Bainbridge Health, Housing and Human Services Council found that
the issue of affordable housing – for buyers, renters and seniors
needing special care – had the largest gap between the perceived
need and the community’s perceived ability to meet that need. For
more information on the housing portion of the survey, read my
story by clicking
here.
Housing, while identified as the biggest problem, was only part
of what the survey had to say.
The brisk pace of Bainbridge Island’s population growth slowed
to a crawl this year, casting doubt on projections steering current
city planning.
According to state demographers, Bainbridge’s estimated growth
hit an eight-year low in 2008, dropping from an average of about 2
percent to less than 0.5 percent.
The slow rise means the island will add only 100 people in 2008,
putting the total population at about 23,180.
“This is interesting because so much of Bainbridge politics is
based on the prediction that growth is out of control,” said Tim
Bailey, an island real estate agent and chair of the city’s 2025
Growth Advisory Committee. “As a resident, I’d say this could be
welcome news because it will make it easier to plan and give us
time to react.”
