Wear Black to the City Open House, Thursday October 26

A.K.A. the “Funeral of the Neighborhood Voice”

Thursday October 26, 6:00 – 7:30 PM
Hales Brewery (in the Palladium)
4301 Leary Way NW

Wear black as together we mourn the loss of our Neighborhood Voice

The City wants to remove Single-Family zoning language from our Neighborhood Plan to allow for upzones and increased building heights in our neighborhood. This Thursday, the City is having an Open House in which they want to “start a discussion” around changes to five neighborhood plans.

If you think that neighborhoods should have a voice, and believe that residents, neighborhood businesses, schools and the city should all be involved and working together to plan the future – then wear black and attend the Open House.

We can make a statement about our lack of voice. Here’s how:

Show up, dressed in black as a visual protest of the City killing our Neighborhood Plans by controlling its language and not allowing neighborhood-directed planning.
The City will ask you to rewrite a section of our neighborhood plan to remove single family zoning language and will dictate what language is allowable, or ask you to choose one of their options. Instead, we recommend you tell the City that our neighborhood plans and zoning should only be changed through a formal neighborhood planning process.

Please join us for the “Funeral of the Neighborhood Voice”.
Suggestions for Signs:

RIP – Neighborhood Voice
RIP – Democracy in Seattle
RIP – Livability
RIP – Affordability
Death of the Neighborhood Plan
Silenced! Neighborhood Voices
Resurrect Neighborhood Plans

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Monthly Meeting, Wednesday October 4

Location: Room 202 of the Good Shepherd Center, 4659 Sunnyside Ave N.

Program: Neighborhood preparation for large-scale emergencies.

Agenda:
7:00 PM – Welcome / Call to Order.
Approval of Minutes.
Waterways Walk planning activities.
Committee reports.

Special Guest:
Cindi Barker, community leader of the city-wide Communication Hubs effort will talk about neighborhood preparation for earthquake, storm, or other large-scale emergencies. She and volunteers who have been active in Wallingford will discuss how to participate, and in the event of an emergency, activate volunteers in our community. For more information, please visit http://www.seattle.gov/emergency-management/prepare/prepare-your-neighborhood.

Good of the Order (anything people want to bring up).
Announcements:

The next Monthly Meeting will be Wednesday November 1.
Wallingford Waterways Walk on Saturday October 7 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. Join us on a family-friendly walk to learn about the public access points on Lake Union. The walk begins at Waterway 22 (at the bottom of Stone Way N). Click here for details.
Please help us to raise awareness of each Waterway by posting your photos and comments on Google Maps and other social media sites!
The Roof is Now Open! As a result of a SEPA appeal by the WCC, public access to the roof of the new Tableau building at Woodlawn Avenue N & N 34th Street is open during business hours. The Entry door is located next to Cafe Acadia. If the door is locked, ask at the Tableau reception desk for the door to be unlocked.

9:00 PM – Adjourn.

Wallingford Waterways Walk, Saturday October 7

Join Us! From 3:00 to 5:00 PM. Rain or shine.

Join us on a family-friendly walk to learn about the public access points on Lake Union.

Where: Waterway 22 (at the bottom of Stone Way N). We’ll meet where the Burke-Gilman Trail intersects with Stone Way N, in the parking lot area by Solsticio just south of N 34th Street). Then about 3:15 PM, we’ll begin to work our way east toward Waterway 15 (just to the west of Ivar’s Salmon House, at NE Northlake Way and 4th Ave NE). For those so inclined, join us after the walk for Ivar’s Happy Hour.

Why: Wallingford’s public waterways are wonderful features of our community and the Wallingford Community Council has made access to the public waterways a key action item. We hold this walk to raise awareness of where the public access points are along the Wallingford section of Lake Union. In addition, we want to improve shoreline habitats. Your input is vital.

What: We will visit each Waterway in Wallingford, generating ideas and making plans as we go. Join us and add your thoughts to the mix. Please help us to raise awareness of each Waterway by posting your photos and comments on Google Maps and other social media sites!

Can’t make it? Use the map on the Shorelines page to find the public access points on the water. Let us know that you want to get involved with waterways by contacting us or by coming to a Monthly Meeting of the Wallingford Community Council (on the first Wednesday of every month).

Seattle Design Process “Improvements” Public Hearing

Your Input Matters!

Seattle Design Process “Improvements” Public Hearing
MONDAY, Sept. 11, 2017

Sign up to testify: 5:00pm
Public comments begin: 7:00pm

LOCATION of Public Hearing:
SIFF Cinema Uptown, Auditorium 3
511 Queen Anne Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109

Growth without Oversight
Do you believe in responsible growth that is positive for your community’s quality of life?

Then make your voice heard with the City Council! The City’s proposal to amend the design review process takes away your influence concerning what gets built in your immediate neighborhood.

Currently, both the City and the Neighborhood Design Guidelines combine with a format that offers two public Design Review meetings to make growth fit within the context of your neighborhood. Without the check and balance of inclusive design review, growth can destroy neighborhoods. With it, the character and quality of the neighborhood is strengthened when adding housing and commercial spaces.

If you can attend the Hearing & make public comment, please do so! See below for more info on the proposes changes.
Get there early & bring a neighbor!

In addition to attending the hearing, please ask all Council Members to:
– Leave the Design Review process as is
– Enforce: Direct city employees and the Design Review Boards to enforce existing design guidelines

“Please leave the Design Process as is, and instead, direct the city to start enforcing design guidelines. Too many departures are being granted, too many setback requirements are being ignored, and too many loopholes are being exploited due to poor enforcement by the City.”

Please CALL City Council and tell them your thoughts: 206-684-8888
Please E-mail City Council:
sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov; tim.burgess@seattle.gov; mike.obrien@seattle.gov; kshama.sawant@seattle.gov; rob.johnson@seattle.gov; lorena.gonzalez@seattle.gov; lisa.herbold@seattle.gov; bruce.harrell@seattle.gov; debora.juarez@seattle.gov

Please submit your comments to Mayor Murray:
http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/get-involved/contact-the-mayor

Proposed changes that impact neighborhoods include:

Removing neighborhoods from the process by replacing language such as:
- “Neighborhood priorities among the design guidelines” with “identify guideline priorities”.
- “Highest priority to the neighborhood” with “highest priority to the Board”.
Exempting projects on properties of less than 10,000 square feet from any design review. In the past 2 years, 29% of projects were in this category. For perspective: most four story apartment buildings are on properties of less than 10,000 square feet.
Restricting the scope of the Design Review Process:
- Administrative – Developments inside Urban Villages get Administrative Design Review, with no public meetings, if less than 20,000 square feet.
- Hybrid – Developments up to 20,000 square feet (or larger inside an Urban Village) would require only the Design Review Board “Recommendation” meeting and not the “Early Design Guidance” meeting.
- Full – Only the largest developments, over 20,000 square feet, and only outside Urban Village boundaries, would require the normal Design Review Board “Early Design Guidance” and “Recommendation” meetings.
Revising who is a stakeholder by changing straightforward terms such as “Developers” to more generic terms like “Project Proponents”.
Shifting responsibility and authority from the Design Review Board to the Director. This has the effect of making Design Review Boards less independent, and will make the Board positions less attractive to the professionals who volunteer their time.
Granting departures from building code without public review.

Your input DOES MATTER! Last year, due to comments and push-back from all over the city, the proposed changes were tabled until now.

Want to learn more?

The Seattle Neighborhood Coalition (SNC) will be discussing the proposed Design Review changes at their monthly meeting this Saturday, 9:00AM, 500 30th Ave S. (Leschi neighborhood of Central District).

Read more about the draft recommendations here:
Design Review Program Improvements, Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections (SDCI).
Draft Ordinance (PDF format).

Monthly Meeting, Wednesday September 6