|
|
 |
Comprehensive Plan
BACKGROUND
Under the state's Growth Management Act, all cities are mandated to establish Comprehensive Plans. These plans act as long-term guides to help each city balance growth with the need to sustain the environment. Bainbridge Island's first Comprehensive Plan, completed in 1994, was developed with the input of a citizen Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee. The plan was updated in the winter of 2004 through a series of public meetings. The Comprehensive Plan is a living document. It serves as a blueprint for the island we envision for the future. The Plan is presently being updated with a due date for completion 2016. The City website for this update is under the title: Navigate Bainbridge which includes a video Comp Plan 101. http://www.ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us/615/Navigate-Bainbridge-Comprehensive-Plan-UCOMPREHENSIVE PLAN and the ZONING ORDINANCE The Zoning Ordinance is supposed to be based on, and be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. Unfortunately the City has neglected to carry out this connection. This failure has resulted in the City’s decision to approve the application to build the Visconsi shopping center (at the NE corner of High School Road and Highway 305) since the reasons for denial relied on the policies and goals in the Comprehensive Plan -- which were never transferred into the Zoning ordinance. This problem was made clear by the fact that the Planning Commission had unanimously recommended denial of the project in 2013 based on policies in the Comprehensive Plan. The City rejected the Planning Commission’s recommendations, with the City Planning Director relying on the incomplete Zoning Code to convince the Hearing Examiner to follow her recommendation for approval of the development. Hence whatever the community decides for its future, it is important the goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan are implemented in the Zoning Ordinance to give their desires the full force of law. BRIEF OVERVIEWThe ten elements of the Comprehensive Plan are presently (URLs below are pdf documents): http://www.ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us/432/Plan-Elements:
While all 10 elements are important, he first three elements are the most important for citizens interested in land use and preserving the environment. In addition, the Winslow Master Plan is part of the Comprehensive Plan. It has sections on Land Use, Open Space and Trails http://www.ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us/431/Winslow-Master-Plan Presently the five overriding principles of the Plan are:
As mentioned above, the Comprehensive Plan consists of Goals and Policies which must be implemented in the Zoning Ordinance. Shown below is an example of a Goal and Policies from the Framework of the Plan (Note: the three letters FRW are abbreviations which give some idea what the policies relate to, and where they can be found – but often this is not clear or easy to find.)
The City’s Home Page contains a search capability, but it requires some patience to use. Let’s take an example to find Policy NSC 1.5 which is the Rolling Bay Neighborhood Service Center (Page 24 of Land Use Element). Using the SEARCH box on the home page and entering "Rolling Bay” gave around 250 results in groups of 10. Searching for "NSC 1.5 " did find a Comp Plan request for a rezone, but nothing came up right away related to the Comprehensive Plan itself, probably since the list is ordered by date. In other words, you often have to go to the sections in the Comprehensive Plan which interest you rather than relying solely on the search tool. Also please note the section of the City’s web site on associated ordinances with the Comprehensive Plan. These often provide the reasoning (or lack thereof) for approving the goals and policies and found in the Comp Plan: http://www.bainbridgewa.gov/430/Associated-Ordinances MAPS An important part of the Comprehensive Plan are the maps which are often overlooked. QUESTIONS Go to Public Request tab. Xxxxxx or contact ABC |