Category Archives: City Council

Vote on subdivision with no minimum lot size, Wednesday August 12

The Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee of the Seattle City Council is considering Omnibus bill CB 119835 this Wednesday August 12 at 9:30 AM. This omnibus bill is supposed to be for minor editorial corrections, but several provisions will change all Single-Family lots into Multi-Family lots with no minimum lot size. We urge you to contact your Councilmembers and ask them to remove these provisions.

  • The Legislative Analysis of these provisions states: “However, the proposed omnibus language introduces ambiguity into the Code that could lead to unintended consequences for future development of vacant lots that are created through a unit lot subdivision process.”
  • The City Council should not be passing bills with ambiguous language.
  • Any single-family parent lot could be redeveloped with a house and an ADU and a DADU then subdivided in three unit lots that could be sold separately (as multi-family housing).
  • Unit lots have no minimum lot size requirement.
  • More trees would be cut to make way for these redevelopments.
  • The price of single-family lots would increase further reducing the affordability of housing.
  • The City Council should use a separate bill with a full public engagement to consider this major change in land use code.
Example of 4960 SF parent lot redeveloped into 2000 SF, 1150 SF, & 1800 SF multi-family unit lots.

Webinar with Councilmember Alex Pedersen, Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Time: 7:00 – 8:00 pm
Location: Zoom videoconference

Please join the Wallingford Community Council on its first virtual community council meeting! District 4 Councilmember Alex Pedersen is our featured speaker in a webinar hosted by Wallingford Community Council President Jennifer Ring-Perez. You may submit questions for Councilmember Pedersen to be asked by President Ring-Perez.

To attend, you must register.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with the information necessary to join the webinar. Registration is presently limited to 100 participants. The webinar will be recorded.

The webinar will be held using the Zoom videoconferencing service. The Zoom service is available as an application for computers, as an app for iPhones or Android phones, or can be joined in many browsers. Configure your device beforehand to ensure your participation is working properly.

Call to Action: Public to be removed from Design Review

Tomorrow Monday April 13 at 2 PM, the Seattle City Council will vote on CB119769, an emergency ordinance to expedite affordable housing during the COVID-19 crisis. The bill curtails public Design Review meetings for the next six to eight months to accelerate project approvals. Instead the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections will conduct only internal administrative reviews.

Administrative Design Review is where the developer can promote variances to set backs and allowances for roof-top structures for their projects. See the Downtown Residents Alliance post for further discussion of the bill.

Express your concerns to the City Council or your Councilmembers. We emphasize these concerns:

  • A better option is to eliminate Design Review for the crisis period. All developers would have to follow the land use code without exception.
  • Only projects with significant affordable housing units on-site should be given this exemption. Market-rate and commercial projects can wait.
  • Six to eight months is an excessive time period for a crisis that may ease in one to two months.

Monthly Meeting, Wednesday March 4

7:00 – 9:00 PM

Good Shepherd Center, Room 202
4659 Sunnyside Ave N

Special Guest: City Councilmember Dan Strauss of District 6 (Wallingford, Fremont, Green Lake, Ballard, Phinney Ridge, and Greenwood). Come hear Councilmember Strauss discuss priorities for the City followed by the opportunity to ask questions.

Barb Burrill will discuss the Wallingford Tree Survey.

Announcements

  • The latest information for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is available from Public Health — Seattle & King County.
  • Bring items that cannot go into a recycling cart to Beyond the Cart hosted by Seattle Public Utilities. Saturday March 7, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church, 8008 35th Ave NE.
  • Historic Wallingford is hosting Researching the History of Your House on Saturday March 14, 1:00 – 3:00 PM at the Mosaic Coffee House, 4401 2nd Ave NE.
  • Seattle Public Utilities is updating its Strategic Business Plan and wants to hear from you. Share your insights in the Customer Survey.
  • Submit small-scale park and street improvement project ideas for the Your Voice, Your Choice: Parks & Streets program to the Department of Neighborhoods through Wednesday March 18.
  • The Green Lake and Wallingford Paving project continues construction on N 40th Street, N 50th Street, and Green Lake Way N. Subscribe with the Seattle Department of Transportation to receive email updates.
  • Seattle Public Utilities and the King County Wastewater Treatment Division are beginning construction of an underground storage tunnel from Ballard to Wallingford. See the Ship Canal Water Quality Project website for details.

Seattle Tree Ordinance, Wednesday February 12

Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee
Wednesday February 12, 9:30 AM

The Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee of the Seattle City Council will meet to hear a Tree Protections Update from the Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI). The Coalition for a Stronger Tree Ordinance is concerned at the loss of tree canopy in Seattle and urges public comments at the Committee meeting or by contacting Council members.

To contact City Council:
Don’t Clearcut Seattle.
Contacting City Officials page on the Wallingford Community Council website.

For more information:
Seattle’s Tree Protection Ordinance.
TreePAC.
Friends of Urban Forests.