Leaf-Brandishing Citizens Counsel the Council on the Comprehensive Plan Update

Dozens of people showed up to last night’s (August 25) City Council meeting bearing tree leaves to bear witness to the clearcut of 830 trees for the development of a mall at High School and 305 by Ohio-based Visconsi Companies. A number of the leaf bearers signed up to address the Councilmembers during the public comment segment. Each speaker was given a three-minute time limit.

Debra D’Angelo, the mother of the young woman who sat in a tree in protest before the cutting, began her comments with an appreciation for the First Nations peoples and an apology to them for the “genocide following the newcomers.” She then described how, when she had first come to the Island for a graduate internship at Helpline House 25 years ago, she fell in love with the place. She said, “Outside developers’ interests are not meant to be a part of the Island.”

Chiara D’Angelo outside Council chambers

To City Planning Director Kathy Cook, who was not present, she said, referring to the development, “This is your legacy.” She added, “My legacy is I took a stand against it.”

She concluded her comments by describing the numbers and types of birds—a red-tailed hawk, three ospreys, scores of songbirds, and eagles—she had seen “circling and circling over what once was their home.” She said, “I too am circling alongside.”

Her 19-year-old daughter Chiara said the media had talked about her as “the girl in the tree” but, she said, “I did it as a woman.”

She explained that her “act was legitimate” and “a new way to have a voice that changed the dialogue in a way not seen in City Council.” She encouraged people to put “our normal on hold,” and “to protect our future, the only one we all have.”

Ron Peltier

Steven Williams described the development as “a new shopping center than nobody wanted.” He said that “a majority of the Island would have voted against it had they had the opportunity. And he criticized the development for not conforming to the City’s Comprehensive Plan.

Then he admonished the Council to “incorporate the provisions of the Comprehensive Plan into the City Code so that it has teeth, so that developers and city staff have to follow those provisions.”

Williams said that in many communities developers cannot clear cut property: “They have to develop a plan with the City.” He said it was “shocking to find out the city doesn’t have a tree ordinance.” To the Council he said, “You need to be working on that as well.”

Debbi Lester

Gary Kooner said the perception is that the Planning Commission “is powerless. The process is window dressing. We might as well not get involved since there’s nothing we can do anyway.” He urged the Council to pass a “resolution to affirm the primacy of the Comprehensive Plan” and “an ordinance to ensure the Comprehensive Plan is followed in all land use ordinances.”

He asked why the citizens should turn out to help update the Comprehensive Plan “if the suggestions don’t get codified.” And he instructed the Council to “direct the planning department to revise the land use ordinances to codify the Comprehensive Plan” and the “city manager to ensure that future Comprehensive Plan revisions get written into code.”

Lester’s call for a boycott

Jack Stanfill, who is on the Chico Creek Task Force, came to Bainbridge to support the development opposition. He said his group has been “locked in battle there for five years” to protect a 17-acre beaver pond. He was moved to attend the Bainbridge Council meeting when he realized “they got kicked in the same place we did.” He said he wanted to “support these folks. I know what they’ve been through. They’re three years behind us on the learning curve.”

Stanfill also offered to provide free training and financial assistance to the protesters.

Mary Claire Kirsten was more pointed in her comments to Council. She said, “This all happened while this Council was sitting. I voted for quite a few of you. I was overjoyed with the results of the last election.” She added, “I fully expect the Comprehensive Plan will be codified into law, and we are going to fight every inch of the way. The Comprehensive Plan is not to be compromised—not one paragraph of it. We are going to be watching you, and the press will be relentless.”

Leaf Brandishers

She said, “This is a very special place and we don’t have to bend to corporations that come in from a ruined city,” referring to Cleveland, the home of Visconsi Companies. “When I was a kid, the river caught on fire. This summer their drinking water turned green. That’s who we turned our future over to.”

When she said, “The Comprehensive Plan is our creed,” the chambers erupted in cheering and clapping, and many of the audience stood up.

Ron Peltier, the organizer of Islanders for Responsible Development, said that the Growth Management Act requires that the Comprehensive Plan be codified. He blamed the City for the development, saying that it was “against the will of the community” and “due to the climate that exists under this roof.” He described the City as “development friendly” and said it “does not embrace the spirit of the Comprehensive Plan.”

Response to Lester’s call for “honoring the trees”

Peltier also criticized City staff, accusing them of “discouraging citizens from being involved” and showing “a willingness to twist and misrepresent the Comprehensive Plan. They cherry picked sections from the Comprehensive Plan to make it fit Visconsi instead of the other way around” because of the “allure of developers’ fees and taxes.”

Former Mayor and City Councilmember Debbi Lester, who helped organize the turnout at the meeting, asked the audience to stand in honor of the 830 trees that were cut down. Many of those present complied, holding tree leaves above their heads as they did. Lester showed slides of the forest and then a few slides with demands of the Council including requiring the City to uphold the Comprehensive Plan, codifying the Plan, assessing traffic impact fees, adopting the International Green Building Code, and passing a tree ordinance. She also called for citizens to boycott Key Bank, which is planning to build a branch in the new development.

Michelle Bianchi, who said she was new to the Island, expressed a lack of interest in a boycott. Instead, she said, she is interested in “how to hit a reset button and move ahead in a transparent way.”

Response to public comment

She talked briefly about the stated core values published on the Visconsi Companies website. “Let’s hold them to those values, to social and environmental sustainability.”

Scott Gambrol, who described himself as a new farmer on the Island living in Akio Suyematsu’s old house, said, “I don’t want to see this community abandon its true values,” which he described as those of “an agricultural stronghold.” He urged the Council to adopt a food policy council to advise the City. He said, “Food security is important—not parking lots and malls.”

“Witnesses to the Clearcut”

The speakers echoed some of the thoughts of people who gathered on the lawn in front of McDonald’s on August 20 to watch as the trees came down. Jennifer Coates, a recent transplant to the Island from New York, described the development as a “most unnecessary use of land. It’s a global issue—not just here.” She said, “We’re so alienated from nature,” and she described a vision she had of a Walgreen’s in the new mall: “I picture the aisles and fluorescent lighting. I picture no one’s in there.” She marveled that a drugstore might be coming to the development right across the street from Rite Aid and Safeway.

She worried that “Even if it fails, the developers will make money.”

Neva Welton, one of the founders of Sustainable Bainbridge, said, “If there’s a genocide in our community, I don’t want it to happen without being there” to give witness. She said her witnessing “may not change the world, but it has an effect.”

Susan Stanton came by to talk to the protesters. She said, “A lot of us want and need more choice in our basic shopping. Our understanding is that there’s going to be a lot of affordable shopping there,” pointing toward the clearcut. She added that “They have changed their practices already at Rite Aid” in response to the future development.

Stanton said she felt disregarded by the protesters and embarrassed by their actions: “People are laughing at us over the protests.” She said out-of-the-area friends had contacted her to tell her.

A man who asked not to be named stopped by to thank Chiara D’Angelo: “It makes us all feel better that somebody did something about this.” He added, “This is a bit of a demoralizing thing.” He encouraged people to move on and make sure something comes from the protest: “We did our best but we’re asking for these one or two things to happen” and to “make sure something like this doesn’t happen in the future.”

For background on the Comprehensive Plan update process, click here. To wade through the existing Comprehensive Plan, click here.

To read about the Comprehensive Plan Update Steering Committee, click here. On September 11 at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers in City Hall, the Steering Committee will hold a public meeting to start developing the public participation plan for the Comprehensive Plan Update.

To sign up to receive updates on the Comprehensive Plan update, click here and choose Navigate Bainbridge.

To see Lester’s slide show, click here. To see her action plan, click here.

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