On Saturday, April 6 from 10 to 2 is Open House at City Hall, located between Fourth and Fifth Avenues at Cherry Street in downtown Seattle. City departments will have info tables in the lobby and you can go for tours through the City Council and Mayor’s Offices. Visit the Municipal Archives on the third floor and see documents of city history.
In the lobby and outdoor spaces of City Hall there will be activities and performances, including an acrobatic troupe at 11 AM (no city officials included in the performance!) and Massive Monkees Dance Crew at noon. There will be food trucks, cupcake decorating, and a story time led by Seattle Public Library staff. Parking is available on-street and in nearby garages – see event notice for directions.
We’d like to think the Seattle City Council got the idea from us, but that’s probably not true. However, ahead of upcoming and always difficult City budget deliberations and negotiations, the City Council is asking to hear from you on what are your priorities.
Last week, the mayor unveiled his 2013/2014 budget proposal to the Council. It’s now the responsibility of the Council to review the mayor’s budget proposal and work with his office to develop a budget that both the executive and legislative branches agree upon. So, the Council wants to hear from you in order to help them craft a strong 2013-2014 budget that reflects our City’s priorities, effectively stewards our City’s revenue, and addresses the fiscal difficulties that the City is still dealing with.
The Council has 4 different methods for you to share your thoughts on priorities:
As you know, the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association are our friendly neighbors to the south and west. Not only are they good people, but their upcoming community meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) is jam-packed with all sorts of goodness that it just had to be passed on. See for yourself.
Note: Not listed is a last minute guest. Either North Precinct Lt. Rasmussen or Captain Robin Clark will attend to answer questions about last week’s shootings.
Ravenna-Bryant Community Association is having a community meeting on Tuesday, June 5th from 7-9 p.m. at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center, 6535 Ravenna Avenue NE.
Free Grateful Bread pastries for anyone who comes through the door!
At our April 3rd, 2012 community meeting, about 80 people heard Jim Diers, former Director of the Department of Neighborhoods, talk about the power of community. Jim gave us a lot of ideas for creating stronger communities, so for our June meeting, we’ll be giving you ways to create a stronger community, right on your own street!
The Seattle Police Department’s NE District Crime Prevention Coordinator, Terri Johnston, will show us how to register our blocks for National Night Out (and give cool ideas for turning our streets into a party), and how to start/maintain a Block Watch Program.
Seattle City Council Member Bruce Harrell, Chair of the Committee on Public Safety, will discuss programs he feels make our streets safer for everyone. Come see what your elected officials are doing to make your neighborhood safe!
Laurie Ames from the Department of Neighborhood will demystify the process of Neighborhood Matching Funds, and explain how you and your neighbors can get money from the City for your own project (and maybe even a National Night Out event!)
Want to know how Greenways make our neighborhoods safer? What to know what a Greenway is? Paulo Nunes-Ueno, Director of Transportation at Children’s Hospital, will give details on the soon to be installed Greenway on 39th Avenue NE. There is a lot of excitement surrounding this first official Greenway in our neighborhood and Paulo is just the guy to fill you in on the Greenway that goes north from the Burke-Gilman Trail through our neighborhood. Read more about Children’s Livable Streets Initiative here.
Community Meeting: Tuesday, May 15th, 7PM at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church Formal Hearing: Tuesday, June 12th, 7PM at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post inaccurately identified the location of two of the surplussed sites. The locations are correct as listed below.
Seattle City Light has numerous pieces of property around the City that are surplus and not needed, yet what to do with these properties and how to do it is often a challenging question for them. One of these surplussed properties, the Morningside Substation at the NW corner of 35th Ave NE and NE 86th Street, is being acquired by the Parks Department for a new Wedgwood park. However, there are five other properties throughout NE Seattle, including 2 more in Wedgwood and 1 in Ravenna-Bryant, that are surplussed (see below).
SCL will be hosting two meetings in Wedgwood over next two months on this topic. The first meeting on Tuesday, May 15th, 7PM at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church will be to discuss disposition alternatives. The second meeting will be a formal hearing on June 12th, 7PM, which is required before the Council can act on any of the alternatives.
The 3 surplussed properties in Wedgwood and View Ridge are as follows:
Wedgwood: 2321 NE 95th Street (across from Ryther)
Our Ravenna-Bryant friends and neighbors to the south/west are hosting their Spring community meeting on April 3rd at 7PM at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center (6535 Ravenna Avenue NE). They’ve had a busy year and have lots to share. Not only that, they’ve got a pretty amazing line up of speakers, some of whom will be speaking to relevant items for Wedgwood and the ongoing corridor/neighborhood planning for 35th Ave NE. According to the RBCA President’s letter to the neighborhood, their featured guests include:
Jim Diers, former (and founding) director of the Department of Neighborhoods: Jim will present stories about the power of communities working together. He’s known around the world for his work — check out his website at neighborpower.org.
Seattle City Council Member Sally Bagshaw, Chair of the Parks and Neighborhoods Committee: Councilmember Bagshaw will speak about the bourgeoning Greenway movement (more HERE and HERE), and answer your questions about the City’s relationship with neighborhoods.
Tom Donnelly, from the RBCA Land Use Committee, will discuss efforts to develop and review planning ideas for our own neighborhood, and hopefully get you thinking about ways that you can get involved.
This is an open community meeting and everyone is welcome. See you there!
UPDATE: Maya Jacobs from the UW is hosting a meeting for folks interested in “Bike to Wedgwood” (elementary school) rides. The meeting will be at 6:30PM, April 3 at the NE Branch Library.
UPDATE 2: Video from the Seattle Channel and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways from their 3/22/12 Citywide Greenway panel discussion were posted below:
You may have heard a bit about “greenways” recently in the local news (here and here). These are safe routes off of major arterials for bicyclists and pedestrians that also provide opportunities for traffic calming and improved streetscapes for residential streets. These greenways seem to be popping up in neighborhoods all over Seattle, including Wallingford, Madison area, Beacon Hill, Ballard, and University District. Now, residents from several NE Seattle neighborhoods have coalesced to form NE Seattle Greenways (Facebook and Twitter) to begin planning a network of greenways in our neck of the woods.
Children’s Hospital and SDOT are finalizing design of a greenway along 39th Ave NE, running north from the Burke-Gilman Trail up to the intersection of NE 75th Street (the southern edge of Wedgwood). This is a section of greenway that was suggested by neighbors as part of Children’s Hospital Livable Streets Initiative, which was a major planning effort that Children’s undertook in 2010 as part of their master planning. As we understand it, the NE Seattle’s first greenway will be built sometime in 2012. We’ll provide more information on the greenway as it becomes available. Until then, Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw (photographed above and one of the City’s biggest advocates of greenways), will be at the Wedgwood Community Council’s general meeting on Wednesday, May 9th to discuss greenways among other issues.
You can see a summarized map of the numerous pedestrian and bicycle projects that community members suggested during Children’s Livable Streets Workshop below.
Seattle Channel featured Greenways in their recent City Stream episode in the video below (Starting at Minute 1:26-7:47).
The Seattle Neighborhood Greenways group has posted video of their recent citywide Greenway Panel Discussion featuring Peter Haun, SDOT Director Peter Hahn, Traffic Engineer Dongho Chang, Cathy Tuttle with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, and a multi-hat wearing professor and planner Anne Vernez Moudon.
COMMUNITY WORKSHOP STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
MAGNUSON PARK 8:30am – 1pm
THE BRIG AT MAGNUSON PARK, GARDEN ROOM
On Saturday, February 11th, the Seattle Parks Department will begin a Strategic Development Plan process with the community for Magnuson Park, including the Sand Point Naval Station Historic District. The purpose of this planning process is to “guide future planning for capital investment, development and programming of this beautiful regional park.”
The community workshop will start at 8:30AM with Mayor McGinn and Councilmember Bagshaw making a brief introduction at 9:00AM. There will be small breakout sessions and discussion groups throughout the workshop so that various topics can be covered and everyone can have their voice heard.
As the venue has limited seating, it’s highly recommended that your RSVP if you’re planning on coming. To do so, please email »Susan Walls.
Click HERE to download the workshop’s save-the-date.
Councilmember Clark will become the new Council President.
According to Conlin’s blog, his top 10 priorities are summarized as follows:
Develop Transit Oriented Development policies and plans for light rail neighborhoods to avoid the contention that has played out in Roosevelt over the past several months.
Work with business, industrial, and labor communities to develop an Industrial Development District.
Create a District Energy Plan for the Yesler Terrace Redevelopment Project.
Make the Vision Duwamish Plan a reality to revitalize and restore our City’s most deteriorated waterway.
Develop integrated incentivized zoning policies, such as transfer development rights, to concentrate development and protect farmland in King County.
Update the Shoreline Management Plan, as required, while incorporating incentivized zoning policies (Item 5).
Develop a new tree regulations to increase tree cover throughout the City.
Update the energy code and green building policies that have put Seattle at the forefront of innovative building strategies.
Advance recommendations on regulatory reform developed by a stakeholder committee to limit policies that restrict economic growth and development.
Look for creative ways to retrofit the approximately 800 Unreinforced Masonry buildings in Seattle that are at risk of failure during an earthquake.
On Tuesday, December 6th, several City staff and councilmembers met with WCC trustees, members of the Wedgwood Land Use Committee (WLUC), and members of the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association to discuss the Vision Plan and how to achieve several of its stated goals. We were fortunate to have been accompanied by:
City Council President, Richard Conlin and his legislative aid Elaine Ko;
Councilmember Sally Clark, who chairs the Committee on the Built Environment;
Karen Ko with the Department of Neighborhood;
Jim Curtin with Seattle Department of Transportation; and
Chip Nevins with the Seattle Parks Department.
The WLUC requested the meeting to discuss the Vision Plan and what we hope to initiate in 2013, which is a neighborhood discussion of land use along 35th Ave NE. While the Vision Plan identifies some extremely useful general themes and shared goals, there is not enough detail within the document to make planning-level decisions for the neighborhood. Therefore, the Vision Plan’s first two suggested actions are:
“Undertake a neighborhood plan that includes a review of current zoning standards and design guidelines with the City Department of Planning and Development. Revise development standards as appropriate in accordance with community preferences established in the neighborhood plan.”
“Work with Seattle DPD to establish neighborhood-specific design guidelines that direct new development.”
Since the unveiling of the Vision Plan in 2010, these two suggested actions have been the Wedgwood Land Use Committee’s two primary objectives. Typically though, neighborhoods that pursue these two tasks are identified as “Urban Villages,” a classification within the Comprehensive Plan for neighborhoods that have been designated to accommodate more density. Given that Urban Villages are population dense, the City can justify funding the development of these neighborhood planning tools, or updates to these tools. Along with great potential for City funding, the Urban Village classification has a more defined path for Council approval of these tools. Therefore, over this past year, the WLUC has been meeting with councilmembers, talking with City staff, and brainstorming with Planning Commission members to identify a process to develop and obtain Council approval of these neighborhood planning tools.
During Tuesday’s walk, we shared our general process for completing these land use planning tools. We also discussed a lot more as well…too much in fact to go into great detail in a single post. However, during our walk we showed the City the new Wedgwood Apartment project that’s quickly taking shape at the former JCC site. We showed the City the Morningside Substation that the Parks Department is in the process of acquiring on our behalf (which requires Council approval). We discussed current zoning designations along 35th Ave NE relative to the goals described within the Vision Plan. We discussed the potential development of design guidelines and a streetscape plan for 35th Ave NE. We discussed traffic issues along 35th Ave NE (in front of the Post Office) and at the intersection of NE 75th Street. We discussed pedestrian safety issues, such as sidewalks and a crosswalk at NE 80th Street. And we showed off Wedgwood’s favorite Christmas tree lot and new gathering place, including the new Wedgwood Emergency HUB, where Councilmember Clark is planning on picking up her tree this year from.
It was an excellent opportunity to share the goals of the Vision Plan, discuss our identified process, and receive feedback from councilmembers and City staff. They all had extremely encouraging things to say about the work of our community. We are eager to share this process and proposed timeline with the community in January at our next community meeting on January 11th. More details and specifics on the meeting will be shared shortly. In the meantime, feel free to email if you have any land use related questions.
Over the past couple weeks, holidays and life have kept us from sharing several school-related stories. We’ve tried to wrap up all these stories into a single-post. This could be the Iron Man equivalent of blog posting.
Report Cards
First, kudos again go to our NE Seattle Schools for their excellent report cards. Last year, we shared the exciting news that Wedgwood-area schools were some of Seattle’s best schools during the 2009-2010 school year with Wedgwood Elementary, Thornton Creek, and View Ridge Elementary all receiving a 5 out of 5 in what the district calls segmentation level. Only 12 schools in the City achieved this highest score. Eckstein Middle School, Bryant Elementary, Laurelhurst Elementary, and Roosevelt High School recieved a 4 out of 5. Nathan Hale received a 3.
The School District has been experiencing a surge in enrollment and are quickly trying to identify solutions to what they believe will be an increasing problem in years to come. Last week, the District held their 2nd of 3 Capacity and Management Planning Meetings at Eckstein Middle School. While we couldn’t make it to the meeting, our review of the meeting’s presentation (see Slide 26 of 34 of this presentation) appears to suggest that potential short-term solutions to the Eckstein Service Area include:
Adding 1 portable to Wedgwood Elementary
Moving the audiology lab from View Ridge to Lowell
Reducing the kindergarten back to 2, and modify geozone.
New School District Representatives
The elections have been verified and congratulations are in order for the new and reelected school district representatives. The newly elected representative include Sharon Peaslee and Marty McLaren.
A Call to Service
The Seattle School District and City of Seattle are looking for volunteers to serve on several committees relating to our schools and the education of our youth. The School District have two committees where they are seeking community volunteers:
On Saturday, April 6 from 10 to 2 is Open House at City Hall, located between Fourth and Fifth Avenues at Cherry Street in downtown Seattle. City departments will have info tables in the lobby and you can go for tours through the City Council and Mayor’s Offices. Visit the Municipal Archives on the third floor and see documents of city history.
UPDATE: Maya Jacobs from the UW is hosting a meeting for folks interested in “Bike to Wedgwood” (elementary school) rides. The meeting will be at 6:30PM, April 3 at the NE Branch Library.
