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Bainbridge council restores UAC language on sewer policy, agrees to reserve capacity for affordable housing
Summary
After hours of debate over the utilities element of the comprehensive plan, Bainbridge Island councilors restored Utility Advisory Committee language limiting policy to study rather than an active push to connect rural homes to city systems, and approved a separate motion to reserve sewer ERUs for affordable housing, directing staff to set reservation details in the sewer plan update.
The Bainbridge Island City Council on June 9 debated substantial changes to the utilities element of its comprehensive plan and adopted motions shaping how future water and sewer policy will be written.
Councilors voted to revert proposed vision language to the Utility Advisory Committee's (UAC) original recommendation, removing language council members feared could be read as a policy to actively connect rural, septic-served homes to city water or sewer. Jennifer Sutton, the senior planner, told the council that the planning commission had proposed the language after passing motions in February; supporters of the revert said the UAC's draft better reflected the committee's intent to avoid mandatory connections.
Deputy Mayor Debra Maritopoulos then moved a separate action directing staff to include an action item in the utilities element to reserve a defined allocation of sewer equivalent residential units (ERUs) for housing projects affordable to 80% area median income and below. Maritopoulos said the reservation would prevent market-rate development from consuming limited sewer capacity before affordable projects can proceed. Supporters framed the motion as a policy signal that would be implemented in detail through the general sewer plan update; opponents said the proposal was open-ended and asked for guardrails on how long ERUs could be held.
Council members pressed staff and each other on the technical assumptions underlying the debate: how many ERUs remain in the Winslow sewer service area, whether the wastewater treatment plant is limited by hydraulic flow or by biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and how commercial uses with high effluent concentrations can consume capacity differently than residential units. City engineer Peter Corella confirmed the plant is BOD-constrained, which complicates simple ERU math and argues for a load-weighted accounting approach.
The motions the council adopted direct staff to: (1) move the utilities element language back to the UAC wording; (2) add an action to explore or reserve ERUs for affordable projects and define the amount via the sewer plan update; and (3) prepare follow-up materials (including reconciled ERU accounting) in the capital facilities/sewer-plan process. The council also voted to defer final approval of the utilities element so staff can incorporate those changes and prepare public-hearing documents.
What happens next: staff will prepare the sewer-plan updates and clarifying materials requested by the council, including an ERU reconciliation and a timeline for deciding the reservation amount and duration. The council asked for the information to be available before final adoption so it can confirm whether proposed zoning changes and growth assumptions align with available wastewater capacity.
