Friday, April 4, 2014 • Bainbridge Island Review
www.bainbridgereview.com
Page A7
Critics of new shopping center talk of possible legal challenge, boycott BY CECILIA GARZA Bainbridge Island Review
A boycott may be in store for the proposed Visconsi shopping center on the corner of Highway 305 and High School Road. Ron Peltier of Islanders for Responsible Development said Friday that with the hearing examiner’s decision this week to approve the development, the group will consider an appeal of the decision in Superior Court or may organize a boycott. “We’re opposed to it because of the particulars of the development,” Peltier said. “Existing commercial space should get redeveloped instead of paving more land in order to get it right the second time. Visconsi is a second Safeway,” he said, referencing the grocery store-anchored shopping center on the other side of Highway 305. Peltier explained that the Islanders for Responsible Development opposed the
proposed Visconsi shopping center because of traffic, environmental and aesthetic impacts. He also said that the new center will hurt downtown Winslow and the surrounding businesses. All of which, he said, was not consistently addressed in the 65-page decision document issued by the hearing examiner late Thursday afternoon. “It’s kind of muddled and contradictory,” Peltier said. “And it makes me question if Mr. Smith has seen better days.” “I think it’s a highly prejudicial decision,” he added. Peltier also claimed Hearing Examiner Stafford Smith downplayed the visual impact of the new development. Smith talked about potential visual impacts at length in his decision. He noted that the city’s Design Review Board found the design of the project acceptable. “It gave particularly
high marks to the Visconsi design,” Smith said of the Design Review Board, and for the developer’s choice to break up the size and appearance of the new buildings to lessen visual impacts to off-site eyes. Smith also said that a buffer of trees will help hide the project from passersby on Highway 305, and noted the project will be most visible at the development’s southern end, where a McDonald’s drive-through restaurant is currently located on the other side of High School Road. Smith also praised the work of project architect Charlie Wenzlau, writing in his decision: “From the standpoint of avoiding adverse off-site visual effects, his design comes about as close to zero-impact as it is possible to get.” Peltier disagreed. “(The buffers are) not going to be as substantial as people think,” Peltier said when noting Stafford’s com-
In the coming weeks, ment that the development Peltier said, Islanders for will be hidden from the Responsible Development highway. will discuss “People next steps need to “Existing commercial their with their lawremember space should get this later yer. when they “There are redeveloped instead drive by options. We can of paving more land file an appeal and they in order to get it right or we are also see the flea-bit considering the second time.” remnants organizing a Ron Peltier of the trees Islanders for Responsible Development boycott,” Peltier that are said. there now.” “People need As for zoning, Peltier said to know what they’re going that Smith’s decision trivialto get. This sprawl that is going to be imposed on us is izes the scale of the project. going to be brought to us by “On the one hand, he Key Bank.” says the project is limited Overall, though, the with site constraints, and on upcoming update of the the other hand, he’s telling city’s Comprehensive Plan us that we should be happy and zoning code will prove they [the developer] didn’t to be the next big chance elect to have a more intense to make real change on and aggressive project,” Bainbridge, he said. Peltier said. “We’ve obviously gone “He knows very well that through a lot of what we can this project is limited to do, but we need to look at access and the project that the bigger picture as well, they are doing right now is that development is ongobarely acceptable,” he said.
ing on Bainbridge Island,” Peltier said. Some positive changes, Peltier explained, would be a revised tree ordinance that includes an arborist plan for developments, much like stormwater management plans the city now requires for projects. Both Maradel Gale of the city’s Planning Commission and Charlie Wenzlau, the Bainbridge-based architect hired for the development, declined comment. “The reason for that is that it may be appealed. And we’ve been advised not to make any comment,” said Gale, who drafted the Planning Commission’s rejection of the proposed development. Bradley Goldberg, director of development for Visconsi Companies, did not respond to an email from the Review requesting comment. Wenzlau said project officials wanted to withhold comment until the appeal period is over.
Examiner lays out long list of must-do’s for developer of new shopping center project BY BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge Island Hearing Examiner Stafford Smith has told Visconsi Companies, the Ohiobased developers of the nowapproved shopping center on High School Road, that it will need to abide by 50 extra conditions that have been added to the permit for the 62,000-square-foot shopping center next to Highway 305. The added changes include a fence between the new development and the nearby Stonecress neighborhood, as well as a 24-hour complaint hotline that will be staffed by the owner of the project. The conditions include: • Taking steps to minimize light and glare from impacting adjacent
properties, including keeping parking lot lights focused downward and no higher than 14 feet high; • Putting chain-link fencing around trees that will be protected during construction; • No disturbance of the wetland buffer will be allowed; • The developer shall build a multi-use trail from the High School Road intersection/crosswalk to the northern property line; • Landscape screening must range in width from 20 to 30 feet, and a 50-foot, on average, landscape screen must be planted along Highway 305; • A 6-foot-tall fence approximately 120 feet long must be built between the development and the adjacent Stonecress neighborhood;
• Any demolition on the site will require a permit; • Sprinklers and fire alarms are required; • No signs will be permitted in the 50-foot buffer along Highway 305; • Drive-through lanes can only be built for the new pharmacy and the bank; • A temporary erosion and sediment-control plan is needed; • All internal roads will be privately owned; • A safety and design study must be completed for a crosswalk on High School Road at the Polly’s Lane intersection; • Polly’s Lane must be designed to permit only one-way southbound traffic; • Parking spaces and charging
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stations must be supplied for each building, as well as five motorcycle spaces per building; • A minimum of 53 bicycle spaces must be provided; • A bus shelter must be built near the existing bus stop on Highway 305; • Exterior trash receptacles and recycling facilities must be fully screened with solid walls and gates; • A minimum of 40 tree units per acre must be maintained; • A noise expert must visit the site and take readings twice during the first year of occupancy; • If the project is found to be out of compliance with noise regulations, noise softening measures must be adopted; • The developer will establish and staff a 24-hour complaint line;
• Tenants must use the latest green building techniques, such as recycled building products and high-efficiency windows, to the extent feasible; and • The developer will allow an interested citizen to remove for his or her own use the existing green structure near the ProBuild entrance. The approval of the permit for the shopping center project came Thursday, March 27 after weeks of review by the city’s hearing examiner. The decision can only be challenged now via a Land Use Petition Act in Kitsap County Superior Court.
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