West Seattle, Washington
08 Tuesday
(Added: Click “play” to watch live Seattle Channel feed while meeting’s in session – in recess as of 11:07 am, resuming 2 pm)
9:07 AM: The next phase of the City Council‘s work on the next city budget starts today, with meetings at 9:30 am and 2 pm to consider specific changes that made the first cut for review. The agenda now has the documents attached for the potential changes they’re considering.
It starts with SDOT and a proposal to cut an item on which we’ve reported – $3 million for a pilot project to remotely operated one of the city’s five drawbridges. Councilmembers were told that if all five bridges were operated remotely, that could eventually save $1 million – but at $3 million for one bridge, the initial investment would be steep. Other SDOT-related proposed changes include $150,000 for the Summer Parkways program (which included the annual Alki “car-free day,” which didn’t happen last summer) and $500,000 for pedestrian improvements proposed by the South Park Safety Task Force. SDOT is one of 19 departments that’ll be addressed today.
Other proposals of interest include reclassifying three vacant Office of Planning and Community Development positions to assign them to “community planning,” and expanding the Ready to Work jobs program for adult English Language Learners to southwest Seattle (which generally means West Seattle/South Park). Also from the budget documents, you can learn what’s being proposed for changes in Seattle Parks facilities fees next year – not a lot of changes in our quick review.
You can follow along with all this via Seattle Channel, streaming and televising (cable 21) the meetings live at 9:30 am and 2 pm. Comments? council@seattle.gov
11:09 AM: The morning session ended a few minutes ago and the council will be back in session at 2 pm. We’ve embedded the live Seattle Channel feed above – click “play” button to watch.
Wondering what your West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold is doing about crime, safety, policing concerns? Here’s your chance to ask her: She’s the guest at Tuesday night’s West Seattle Block Watch Captains Network meeting, 6:30 pm at the Southwest Precinct (2300 SW Webster). Right now, in addition to representing our area on the council, Herbold is also chairing its budget committee, which is making spending decisions for the next year; she ascended to that role after the shakeup that started with former Mayor Murray’s resignation. You don’t have to be part of a Block Watch to attend the meeting, which will also include updates from local police leadership – just come to the precinct meeting room, which is right off the parking lot, entrance off Webster west of Delridge [map], east of the south side of Home Depot.
If you couldn’t make it to last Thursday night’s West Seattle forum with six citywide candidates (WSB video/photos/text coverage here), you have another chance this week to see two of them here – mayoral hopefuls Jenny Durkan and Cary Moon.
(WSB photo from Thursday night forum)
They’re scheduled to appear during the second half of the West Seattle Democratic Women‘s lunch meeting on Thursday (October 26th) at WS Golf Course, 12:30 pm-1:15 pm (the meeting starts at 11:30 am). If you’re interested in ordering lunch – you need to e-mail chair Rachel Glass by Monday morning – werdachel (at) aol (dot) com – it’s $13.50 members, $15 non-members. If you’re not interested in lunch, there’s a $5 program fee that includes coffee/tea and dessert. The golf course meeting room is right off the parking lot, 4600 35th SW.
Got your ballots yet? Ours just arrived. As voting begins, this fall’s candidates are still making the rounds to ask for your vote, and six citywide candidates were in West Seattle last night doing just that.
The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce and WS Transportation Coalition hosted the mayoral and council candidates at American Legion Post 160, with more than 50 people braving the blustery weather to see and hear the forum in person.
If you couldn’t be there, we recorded it all, and have text highlights too – not full transcription, but the best we could do at capturing key points the candidates made. First, video of each faceoff:
Pete Spalding from the Chamber board moderated the forum, after brief remarks from Keith Hughes of Post 160 – who noted that the venue is an old schoolhouse gymnasium – and Deb Barker of the WSTC, reminding all that West Seattle’s bridges are the city’s busiest roads, followed Chamber board president Paul Prentice, who gave an overview of West Seattle’s business community. The peninsula is facing “serious issues” that require “serious leadership to resolve,” Prentice noted.
Now, our text highlights. Both sets of council candidates were asked the same questions. First up: City Council Position 8, the citywide position for which now-Mayor Tim Burgess was not running for re-election.
Your ballot for the November 8th election is on the way. That adds extra weight to the final few weeks of candidate forums – with voters able to make their choices at any time. On Wednesday night, the candidates for City Council Position 8 – the citywide spot for which now-Mayor Tim Burgess chose not to run again – visited the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council. Above is our video of the 48-minute forum, with candidates Jon Grant and Teresa Mosqueda. Housing affordability, homelessness, and transportation were the hot topics.
Mosqueda and Grant are due back in West Seattle tonight (Thursday), as part of the forum presented by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce and West Seattle Transportation Coalition, which also will feature the Council Position 9 (Lorena González and Pat Murakami) and Mayor (Jenny Durkan and Cary Moon) candidates, 6:30 pm at American Legion Post 160 (3618 SW Alaska).
Also at the district-council meeting, before the candidates’ forum:
TRANSPORTATION: DNDC members want to hear from Metro and SDOT at future meetings, to talk about transportation along Delridge, including overcrowding on Routes 120 and 125. Pigeon Point’s Pete Spalding noted that Metro needs to understand that the Delridge routes aren’t just about going downtown – those routes are the ones the people who live in the area use to travel around West Seattle.
CITY BUDGET: Highland Park Action Committee co-chair Michele Witzki asked everyone to pay attention to the City Council budget discussions about where to deploy LEAD – Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion – which Highland Park has been asking for, for years. Earlier this week, councilmembers talked primarily about using it in the North and South Precincts, not the Southwest. Also discussed, pavement problems on 26th SW, and all were urged to contact City Councilmember Lisa Herbold’s office to ask for paving funds to be used to fix it.
The Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meets third Wednesdays most months, 7 pm, rotating locations, currently Highland Park Improvement Club.
Tomorrow, King County Elections will send out the general-election ballots. One day later, you have the only scheduled chance to see the six candidates for City Council and Mayor at one public West Seattle event: Thursday night’s forum co-presented by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce and West Seattle Transportation Coalition.
Doors open at 6:30 at American Legion Post 160; at 7 pm, you’ll hear from City Council Position 8 candidates Teresa Mosqueda and Jon Grant; at 7:35 pm, you’ll hear from City Council Position 9 candidates Lorena González and Pat Murakami; at 8:10 pm, you’ll hear from the candidates for mayor, Cary Moon and Jenny Durkan. Here’s the planned format:
Each segment will begin with a two-minute opening statement by each candidate, followed by a series of questions centered on concerns of the West Seattle small-business and transportation community. We will conclude each segment with a one-minute closing statement.
Post 160 is at 3618 SW Alaska.
(WSB file photo by Christopher Boffoli)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Tomorrow (Tuesday) the City Council continues the next phase of discussion how, and whether, to change the budget officially presented by Mayor Tim Burgess three weeks ago.
Tomorrow’s sessions, at 9:30 am and 2 pm, will be highlighted by the Seattle Police Department budget (afternoon) and the city’s spending plan to respond to homelessness (morning).
Today, the council also met in morning and afternoon sessions. This is the stage of the budget where City Council staffers “identify issues” – such as, new proposed spending – and also mention the first round of council proposals for additions/changes.
The centerpiece was the Department of Transportation budget. Here’s the document in which the issues and possible changes are outlined:
(If the embedded version doesn’t work for you, see it here in PDF.)
When we first browsed the proposed city budget after it went public three weeks ago, one of the items that caught our eye was a proposal for a pilot program to enable remote openings/closings of one of the city’s five drawbridges. The proposal said they hadn’t yet determined which one – whether it would be the Spokane Street Swing Bridge (aka West Seattle “low bridge”) or somewhere else – but said the pilot project would cost an estimated $3 million.
During today’s briefing, the bridge proposal was first on the list of “issues,” 13 minutes into the meeting:
From the budget meeting briefing paper:
Remote Bridge Operations Pilot
The Proposed Budget includes $3M of Commercial Parking Tax revenue to implement remote operations for one of Seattle’s moveable bridges (to be determined). This project will allow SDOT to open and close the bridge from a central operating location. SDOT currently operates 5 moveable bridges with on-site operations; collectively, these bridges open approximately 15,400 times a year. The funding will provide for additional cameras, sensors, communication equipment, a remote operations center, and bridge modifications. The project will require approval from the U.S. Coast Guard, which regulates SDOT’s bridge operations.
Remote operations will not change the job requirements for Bridge Operators, and the pilot project is not anticipated to reduce operating costs as a stand-alone project. SDOT anticipates that if all 5 bridges were remotely operated, SDOT could save $1M per year through centralized staffing resulting in reduced labor costs. Full implementation to fully achieve these savings would require significant future funding, which is not currently identified.
Councilmember Rob Johnson was the first to call this into question, saying that theoretically spending $15 million over the next few years to convert all bridges to remote operation, and therefore saving $1 million a year, would be “spending a lot of money to save a little money” and “inconsistent” with budgeting philosophy.
Among the other SDOT issues, council staffers raised some concerns about the scheduling and funding for upcoming RapidRide lines including H for Delridge. From the briefing document:
The Move Seattle levy anticipates leveraging significant grant and partnership contributions for congestion relief projects, including seven bus rapid transit (BRT Corridor) projects identified in the levy. The Proposed Budget advances design on the Madison BRT, Roosevelt RapidRide, Delridge RapidRide, Rainier RapidRide, and Market/45th RapidRide projects. The total assumed grant and partnership contributions for these projects is $209M which is about 80 percent of the overall project costs.
Given the uncertainty with federal transportation funding under the current administration, Council may wish to consider a SLI asking SDOT to report on federal funding opportunities and present options for delivering the seven BRT Corridor projects in time for 2019-2020 Budget deliberations. Options could include revising project delivery schedules, reducing scope across projects, or prioritizing corridors for available funding.
Other SDOT issues include revenue from red-light and school-zone cameras. No new ones were installed this year but SDOT is reported to be reviewing 10 locations (not identified in the budget documents) for possible installation next year.
In the section of the briefing addressing changes proposed by councilmembers, one proposal of note was from Councilmember Mike O’Brien – who chairs the council committee dealing with transportation – would spend $200,000 to study what might happen when the future Highway 99 tunnel opens, with tolls, leading to “diversion” (some drivers not using it because they don’t want to pay):
This funding would support consultant studies to understand the implications of SR-99 diversion and explore options, such as congestion pricing, to help manage impacts to local streets and transit travel times.
Also proposed for addition to the budget, $500,000 for pedestrian improvements in South Park, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Herbold and Lorena González. Several speakers in the public-comment period of the morning meeting also asked for spending to safely connect South Park and Georgetown.
In today’s afternoon meeting, councilmembers were briefed on issues/proposals for the Seattle Public Utilities budget (see the document here) and for the Department of Finance and Administrative Services (see the document here). Here’s the video – no public commenters, so the discussion started off the top:
Key issues included money earmarked for the Seattle Police North Precinct and the new proposal by Councilmembers O’Brien and Kirsten Harris-Talley for a “head tax” that they say would only affect the top 10 percent (in gross revenue) Seattle businesses, raising more money for efforts to reduce homelessness.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: Herbold described the process in her weekly e-mail/online update last Friday. That includes this calendar with the full budget-process schedule. The next phase starts next Monday: “Proposals for the next set of meetings, from October 23 to 25, will need to be have specific funding amounts; they will also need three Council sponsors, by a 2 p.m. deadline on October 19.” So if there’s something you want to see in next year’s budget but haven’t seen so far, contact the council – council@seattle.gov. And in the meantime, each of the budget committee meetings has a public-comment period, so if any of the departments interests you and you can make it to City Hall for that meeting, you can sign up to speak. There’s also one more nighttime public hearing about the budget in general, set for 5:30 pm November 1st.
From last night’s 34th District Democrats meeting, last one for our area’s largest political organization before the November election:
CHAIR ANNOUNCES COMPLAINTS: 34th DDs chair David Ginsberg warned the group that his monthly report would be different this time around. He used it to announce that the group had become the subject of complaints filed by Glen Morgan, who Ginsberg described as a lawyer trying to “bankrupt progressive causes” via legal action.
Though November 7th is Election Day, ballots go out a lot sooner – October 18th, less than a week and a half away. If you’re not already registered to vote, today is the last day to do it the easiest way – online. If you’re into procrastinating, you can do it in person until October 30th, but why wait? Find more how-to info here.
P.S. Besides the mayor’s race, you’ll also be voting on:
-Two citywide City Council positions
-City Attorney
-Three School Board positions
-Three Port Commission positions
-County Executive
-County Sheriff
–County Proposition 1
-Two judges
–Three state “advisory measures,” including one about the education-funding tax increase
P.P.S. The only major West Seattle forum of the general-election campaign is one week from Thursday – 6:30 pm October 19th, presented by the WS Chamber of Commerce and WS Transportation Coalition, focused on business and transportation issues, at American Legion Post 160 (3618 SW Alaska), with candidates for mayor and City Council Positions 8 and 9 expected.
(Added – reader photo via text (thank you!): Councilmember Harris-Talley taking the oath of office)
City Councilmembers have chosen Kirsten Harris-Talley to fill the temporary Position 8 (citywide) vacancy left when Tim Burgess became interim mayor, and she has just been sworn in. Harris-Talley is a Hillman City resident whose background you can read here. She will serve until the results of next month’s election – with Teresa Mosqueda and Jon Grant running for the permanent position – are certified.
Tomorrow night, each of the 16 applicants for the temporary Seattle City Council Position 8 vacancy – the one Tim Burgess left to become temporary Mayor – gets 3 minutes to make their case to the current councilmembers, at a City Hall hearing. Then members of the public get their chance to comment. It’s a key part of the process leading up to the councilmembers’ decision this Friday, as explained here. Application materials with the applicants’ backgrounds is now available online. The list:
Ray Armitstead
Richard Baron
Tiniell Cato
Kirsten Harris-Talley
Lewis Jones
Brendan Kolding
Nick Licata
Kaylee McClure
Brianna McDonald
Doug Nellis
ChrisTiana ObeySumner
Abel Pacheco Jr.
Jennifer Perevodchikov
Robert Radford
Alex Tsimerman
David Tygerson
Browsing the background info – which, for each candidate, is linked toward the bottom of this page – we see at least one West Seattleite; that’s Brendan Kolding, who has run for office before. The application materials posted online don’t specifically include a spot for candidates to mention their neighborhoods, so if anyone else on the list is from West Seattle, let us know! The City Council seat is at-large (citywide), so applications were accepted from people anywhere in the city. The person appointed Friday by the current council will have the job until the November election results are certified – Burgess wasn’t running for re-election, so the permanent councilmember will be either Teresa Mosqueda or Jon Grant, the top two vote-getters in the August primary. In the meantime, if you don’t want to speak at tomorrow night’s 5 pm public hearing, you can also send your thoughts to the council by e-mailing council@seattle.gov.
Monday afternoon, the City Council‘s biggest fall task – budgeting – got into gear with newly appointed Mayor Tim Burgess presenting the proposed 2018 budget.
After taking a look through much of it (you can find all the links here), plus the resulting standalone announcements, a few notes:
BUDGET BOSS: West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold will lead the council through its review and finalization process. Burgess had been chairing the Select Budget Committee; Herbold was vice chair of the committee whose portfolio included finance, which meant it was likely she’d become the budget boss, but not finalized until a council vote on Monday.
HEADLINER: Burgess’s big headline proposal was the “Seattle Retirement Savings Plan” for workers whose employers don’t offer retirement plans. It’s explained here.
From a few of the city departments’ budget plans:
TRANSPORTATION – Its budget notes are here. Catching our eye:
Arterial Paving – (adding) $500,000: Heavy use and winter weather take their toll on city streets. SDOT’s Arterial Major Maintenance program addresses deteriorated pavement and uses City crews to pave one to three street blocks. The 2018 Proposed Budget includes a one-time investment of Real Estate Excise Taxes to augment the $4.9 million base budget for this program.
The next one didn’t say which of the five city-operated bridges (which include the West Seattle “low bridge”) would be the subject of the pilot project, but it’s notable because it could lead to automation of all five:
Bridge System Enhancements – $3,000,000: The City operates five movable bridges that open approximately 15,400 times annually. To operate these bridges, SDOT employs 23 bridge operators who operate the bridges 24/7. The proposed budget includes a one-time commercial parking tax allocation to pilot automation of one of Seattle’s movable bridges during 2018. This investment includes a remote operations location as well as communication and video enhancements. If the pilot is successful, it will take three to five years to automate all the City’s movable bridges and could result in approximately $1 million in annual cost savings as well as reduce or eliminate unnecessary bridge openings.
Speaking of pilot projects, a West Seattle SDOT project is mentioned here:
CIP Staged Oversight Proviso: The City is developing a more consistent approach to the planning, budgeting, design and delivery of capital projects with the goal of improving the overall quality, responsiveness, and success at meeting project schedules and budgets. As part of this effort, the proposed budget will pilot two projects by placing spending restrictions on them. For SDOT, the pilot project is the Delridge Multimodal Corridor Project where spending will be restricted until Seattle Department of Transportation reports to the Sustainability & Transportation Committee, or its successor committee, on the 10% design baseline package in a format requested by that committee’s chair.
The biggest part of the Delridge MCP is the conversion of Metro Route 120 into RapidRide Line H – still a couple years away.
(Archived Seattle Channel video from 5 pm swearing-in ceremony)
3:45 PM: 10-year City Councilmember Tim Burgess is about to become Mayor Tim Burgess. He was the only councilmember nominated this afternoon by colleagues eligible to vote on who would succeed Bruce Harrell, who took over last Wednesday after Ed Murray’s resignation, but said he didn’t want to keep the job through November. After several councilmembers spoke glowingly of Burgess, one councilmember did not – Kshama Sawant voted no, after citing reasons including Burgess’s support for encampment sweeps and a new North Precinct police station. He wasn’t running for re-election, so he was going to be leaving the council anyway. Burgess ran (briefly) for mayor in 2013. He promises now to help the city “heal” and “move forward. … Public service is a high calling.” After he’s sworn in, Harrell returns to the council presidency and councilmembers will have to choose a temporary councilmember for District 8, which Burgess has been representing. Updates to come.
4:02 PM: News release from the city says that Burgess will be sworn in by City Clerk Monica Martinez Simmons at 5 pm, and reiterates that he will serve until November 28th, when King County certifies election results (finalizing either Cary Moon or Jenny Durkan as the next mayor).
4:59 PM UPDATE: We’ve embedded the Seattle Channel live stream above for the swearing-in ceremony – click “play.”
5:04 PM UPDATE: Joining Burgess for the swearing-in ceremony are other elected officials including King County Executive Dow Constantine and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson. “We are united” in promising that the governments will collaborate, Burgess says. He notes, “We want our region to be a place where businesses are successful.” He repeats the “We are united” theme for a variety of other issues, including education. And with that, he becomes Mayor Tim Burgess, for two and a half months.
5:08 PM: The new mayor just answered a few media Q&A, first about the budget process, which he would have been heading up as a Councilmember, and now will be involved as submitting the mayoral budget proposal, one week from today (September 25th). Asked what he meant by saying this is a time to heal, he says the recent “crisis” was “painful for all of us.” Asked about what he hopes to accomplish, he said, “I’m going to be mayor for 71 days,” and the budget will be a major part of that time, as well as getting the city ready for its next permanent elected mayor. West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, by the way, as vice chair of the committee that leads the budget process, now will be leading it. And there’s a council vacancy that will have to be filled – the city clerk’s website spells out the process.
(Seattle Channel screengrab from Mayor Harrell’s announcement. Archived video is added below)
4:30 PM: Click the “play” button above for the live Seattle Channel feed of Mayor Bruce Harrell announcing his decision on whether to keep the interim mayoral position for the full two-plus months until the winner of November’s election is sworn in. He’s also scheduled to announce executive orders. It’s been two days since he became mayor following Ed Murray‘s resignation; city rules stipulated that the City Council President would ascend to that role but then have to decide within five days whether to keep it until the next election.
4:36 PM: Harrell has started not with word of his future intentions, but with word of the executive orders. He signaled Seattle’s intention to compete for Amazon’s 50,000 “HQ2” jobs. Another involves a partnership with King County to potentially change the plan for a $210 million youth detention center, and have the city “put some skin in the game.” Third, he said, involves the city having become – and this was his word – “filthy … as an elected official, I’m embarrassed driving around some of the areas of this city.” He says it’s time “to reset community norms” and is directing Seattle Public Utilities and other departments to “identify the 10 hot spots” in the city, and “then commit by saying how quickly we will clean those spots.” Fourth involves information technology. (We’ll add the documents when they’re available online.)
4:42 PM: Harrell has now made the big announcement – he’s declining the mayoral role beyond these few days, and will go back to being City Council President. This means the council will talk Monday afternoon about who’s next, from among their ranks.
4:46 PM: He’s moving on to Q&A. First one is about the youth detention center – instead of building a “traditional” facility as has been planned, he wants the city to move toward “zero detention” by finding other facilities, maybe near the current site on Capitol Hill, maybe outside the city, maybe leased, maybe built, including support services. Next, he’s asked if he’s confident that councilmembers will choose someone else to be mayor, as soon as Monday – it’s on their agenda for Monday afternoon. Then he’s asked why he decided not to keep the job. “I really care about the city, and I think there are issues” – including the upcoming budget process – “that need my leadership.” Staying on as mayor through November would have cost him his council seat (though otherwise he has two years left in his term); he’s not elaborating on how that played into his decision. Next: Why issue executive orders, as a short-term mayor? “This work needs to be done, I don’t care who’s the executive, I don’t care who’s calling the shots, this work needs to get done.” The last question – whether his executive order stops the youth detention center from being built. No, but “if we do this right, the county may look at what’s being built, and pivot.”
4:56 PM: The event’s over. To be clear, Harrell’s announcement wasn’t a resignation – so he remains mayor until the City Council appoints one of its own. We will replace the video window that was embedded atop this story with a still image until an archived video clip is available.
6:12 PM: Here are the executive orders, in PDF, as received from the mayor’s office:
Trash removal
Youth detention center
Business retention
Data management
Here’s the archived video of this afternoon’s announcement:
(Above: Click play button to see archived video of Harrell’s statement, Q&A, and oath)
4:50 PM: Watch it here live – one day after Ed Murray announced he’s resigning as mayor, City Council President Bruce Harrell will take the oath of office to become interim mayor. That’s set for 5:01 pm, after he – at least, as announced in advance – makes a statement and takes media Q&A. Updates to come.
4:54 PM: With City Council colleagues and city department heads among those surrounding him, Harrell has taken the podium, a bit later than expected. “I don’t see this as a caretaking obligation .. I see this as an opportunity to set the stage for excellence,” Harrell said. He is not yet announcing whether he will keep the interim job or decline it – but is hoping to announce his decision by 5 pm Friday, and has advised the council to be potentially ready to take action next Monday (September 18th). He mentions that the presentation of the city budget is coming up and “either I will present it, or I will receive it.” After mentioning a variety of issues he expects it to address, he says, “Let’s heal together … for those who are hurting, let’s heal together. We have a lot of work to do as a team – so let’s do it. It’s as simple as that.”
Asked what factors he’s evaluating in making his decision, Harrell says he’ll put “the needs of the city” first, whatever he decides, not his own “agenda.” Asked about some of the procedural points in the City Charter, he says it’s been a “challenge” to “dig out what the charter addresses,” and promises a “citywide e-mail” to reassure employees about the continuity of their work.
5:09 PM: Harrell has been sworn in as mayor. (As Jim Brunner of The Seattle Times pointed out on Twitter, city webpages already have a new header with his name replacing Murray’s.)
5:12 PM: The swearing-in event is over, so we’ve removed the live-video window atop this story, replaced it with an image from the Seattle Channel feed, and will re-add the full archived video once it’s available.
P.S. Harrell ran for mayor in 2013, finishing fourth in the primary behind Murray, then-incumbent mayor Mike McGinn, and former City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck. His current council term has two more years to go, unless he gives it up by deciding to keep the interim mayoral job until the November election results are certified.
6:19 PM: Archived as-it-happened Seattle Channel video is now embedded above.
THURSDAY NOTE: We originally embedded the archived video from YouTube; it’s now available from the Seattle Channel site (minus the outdated “live at 4:45 pm” slate), so we have substituted that.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
When city staff booked a Queen Anne movie theater for a doubleheader public hearing before the City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee, they seriously underestimated the amount of time and space they would need.
Last night’s hearing at SIFF Cinema Uptown was scheduled for an hour and a half of public comment on the HALA upzoning proposal for the Uptown area, and then two hours of public comment on proposed changes to the city’s Design Review program.
The former turned out to be the hottest ticket. When we arrived around 6:40 pm, planning to cover the Design Review hearing, we found dozens of people waiting outside the theater – not for one of the movies in the other two auditoriums, but for the upzoning hearing. The theater had declared Auditorium 3 at capacity and was only letting people in to replace those who left; we had to argue our way in.
As it turned out, though, we might as well have waited, as the Uptown hearing ran an hour extra. It was a standing-room-only crowd, with four councilmembers – committee chair Rob Johnson, vice chair Mike O’Brien, Tim Burgess, and Sally Bagshaw – present for that hearing, while only Johnson and O’Brien stayed for the Design Review hearing. (West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who is a member of the committee, was not there.)
Uptown testimony finally wrapped up just after 8 pm, and Johnson ordered the proceedings to move immediately into the Design Review topic. A very quick overview was given by Christina Ghan from the Department of Construction and Inspections, and then it was on into the ~40 people who had signed up to speak. Seattle Channel was there, recording, but as of this writing, its video of the marathon hearing hasn’t appeared online, so here’s what we recorded. There’s literally nothing to see after the first couple slides, as our angle didn’t get the speakers (who were almost all down on the auditorium floor anyway), but you can play it as audio in the background.
Below – highlights of each speaker. Not full transcriptions – you’ll want to listen, to get the entirety of what was said. In summary, the criticism was wide-ranging, and not necessarily along the lines you’d expect. Criticism of the proposed “early community engagement” component ranged from leaving the fox in charge of the hen house to adds even more unpredictability for project teams; last-minute amendments led to a variety of concerns about changing the thresholds for design review, either raising them or lowering them. And several people suggested that adding staffing to SDCI would be the best way to speed up project reviews, expressing doubt that the design-review process was really a major factor in delays. Only a few people alluded to the amendments brought up last Friday (see them here). Ahead, the toplines:
1:22 PM: Just in via e-mail:
Today, Mayor Murray released the following statement:
“I am announcing my resignation as mayor, effective at 5 p.m. tomorrow.
“While the allegations against me are not true, it is important that my personal issues do not affect the ability of our City government to conduct the public’s business.
“I’m proud of all that I have accomplished over my 19 years in the Legislature, where I was able to pass what were at the time the largest transportation packages in state history, a landmark gay civil rights bill and a historic marriage equality bill.
“And I am proud of what we have accomplished together at the City during my time as mayor, passing a nation-leading $15 minimum wage, and major progressive housing affordability and police accountability legislation, as well as negotiating an agreement to build a world-class arena that I believe in time will bring the NHL and NBA to Seattle.
“But it has also become clear to me that in light of the latest news reports it is best for the city if I step aside.
“To the people of this special city and to my dedicated staff, I am sorry for this painful situation.
“In the interest of an orderly transition of power, Council President Bruce Harrell will become Mayor upon my resignation, and will decide within the following five days whether he will fill out the remainder of my term. During this time Director of Operations Fred Podesta has been tasked with leading the transition.”
The announcement was made hours after The Seattle Times reported new accusations of sexual abuse by Murray, this time from a cousin.
Four months ago, Murray gathered supporters at the Alki Bathhouse – noting that it was near his boyhood home in West Seattle – to announce that he would not run for re-election, but until today, he had continued to insist that he would finish out his term.
1:54 PM: As noted in the comment section, Council President Harrell circulated this memo a month ago, regarding succession if the mayor resigned. (Thanks to SCC Insight for making the memo easy to find.) It elaborates on what Murray’s statement mentions – that Harrell becomes acting mayor but can decide within five days whether he wants to keep that role until a new mayor is elected in November. If he declines it, the council would elect someone else from its ranks to serve as acting mayor, and then would have to fill that councilmember’s job.
2:41 PM: And if you’re still confused – a statement just e-mailed by City Attorney Pete Holmes says he’s helping to sort it out:
“As City Attorney, my number one priority is maintaining continuity of government operations for the people of the City of Seattle. My office is advising the City Council and the Mayor’s Office on next legal steps forward under the City Charter.”
3:54 PM: Council President Harrell isn’t saying yet whether he’ll keep the interim mayorship beyond a few days. In this statement, he says, “I intend to make an announcement within the five days on my intentions and will talk to my family, my colleagues on the Seattle City Council, and trusted members of our city on this decision with the understanding that the City and continuity of governance comes before all other factors.”
We were already planning to publish a reminder about a City Council committee hearing Monday night that’s of citywide importance to everyone interested in development – the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee‘s hearing on proposed changes to the Design Review process. Then, just now, a local community group that closely watches development-related issues sent an alert with new last-minute information. From the Morgan Community Association:
The city has proposed some major changes to the existing Design Review Program. MoCA President (and past Design Review member) Deb Barker was on the stakeholders group who worked with the city on possible changes earlier this year. The city just released their final proposed version in a package sent to the City Council in August. Several MoCA board members have been reviewing those changes to see how they would impact our neighborhood and if we wanted to make additional comments at the Public Hearing tomorrow, Sept 11. But to our dismay, on Friday (Sept. 8th), the City Council Planning, Land Use and Zoning Committee proposed 9 additional amendments of modifications, some of which have multiple new options. In their discussion, staff was not able to actually describe what the full changes are and admit it is confusing and more information is needed.
In a nutshell, we don’t know what’s on the table any more!
The PLUZ committee has said they plan to vote this out of committee on Sept 19. We are asking anyone who has an interest in good design happening in our neighborhoods to write to the PLUZ committee and request more time for Council to solidify their amendments and have time for the public to review and comment on the final package. Please send a short note to city council by 7:00 pm Monday, Sept 11.
Email addresses for the PLUZ committee
rob.johnson@seattle.gov
lisa.herbold@seattle.gov
mike.obrien@seattle.gov
lorena.gonzalez@seattle.govLink to the Mayor’s proposed changes to Design Review (Director’s Report summary)
Link to the City Council proposed amendments (as of last Friday)
The council committee has been discussing the potential changes (pre-amendments) in recent months; we wrote about one of the discussions in mid-August. In general, reasons cited for changing the program include shortening the time it takes to get projects through city vetting, and also an alleged overload/backlog for the city’s Design Review Boards (although right now, for example, the Southwest Design Review Board has zero projects on its upcoming calendar).
MONDAY NIGHT’S HEARING: If you’d like to comment in person at the committee’s hearing on the Design Review changes, the Monday night hearing is on Lower Queen Anne, at SIFF Cinema Uptown, in Auditorium 3, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N. The meeting starts at 5:30 pm with an hour and a half scheduled for the Uptown rezoning proposal, not related to the Design Review proposal, which is then scheduled to come up at 7 pm. The meeting’s full agenda, with document links, is here.
(Site plan showing where self-storage building would span what’s currently city right-of-way)
Three weeks ago, we reported on a City Council committee approving a “street vacation” requested for the West Coast Self-Storage project on the way to 3252 Harbor Avenue SW, in partnership with Nucor, because of that company’s use of undeveloped right-of-way for adjacent train tracks. This week, the council gave its unanimous approval to the proposal. When it’s finalized, the undeveloped sections of 29th SW and City View involved in the request (see the map above) would be sold to WCSS and Nucor at fair-market value. The final version of the ordinance includes the 12 items, valued at $305,000, that would be provided as “public benefit,” required for right-of-way to be given up in this way. The project will be a 56-foot-high building with 850 storage units.
(Seattle Channel video of PLUZ committee meeting Tuesday. Design Review discussion starts 1 hour, 53 minutes in)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
If the city’s Design Review process is dramatically overhauled, as currently proposed, it could cut one or two months off the time it takes a development to get through the permitting process. The speed-it-up aspect was touted at the start of the mayor’s announcement earlier this month that the proposal was ready to go public.
But is that the most important goal? That’s one of the questions being considered by the City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee, which got its second briefing Tuesday on the proposed Design Review changes.
They were told the all-volunteer Design Review Boards around the city have a backlog (although here in West Seattle, for example, as of this writing, the Southwest Design Review Board has only one project on its calendar, the September 7th review of 2222 SW Barton (the official notice was published today, but we reported on the scheduling two weeks ago).
One reason for scrutiny of the proposed changes: Design Review remains the only part of the project-vetting process that requires public meetings for some projects. If these changes pass, fewer projects will have to go through Design Review – and most of those that do will have fewer, if any, meetings. The overall changes are summarized in this council-staff memo:
1. Require early community engagement by applicants with the community;
2. Modify the thresholds above which design review is required. To ensure consistent application, thresholds will be based on the total square footage in a building instead of dwelling unit counts, use and zone;
3. Establish new thresholds to determine the type of design review required based on site and project characteristics;
4. Change the composition of design review boards (DRBs) to replace the general community interest seat with a second local residential/community interest seat and allow more than one Get Engaged member to participate on the boards; and
5. Modify and update other provisions related to design review.
At Tuesday’s briefing, city staffers focused on two components – the “new thresholds” and the “early community engagement.” The latter would in effect replace the first public meeting for some projects – with a new type of “outreach” that developers will be expected to arrange.
(Site plan showing where self-storage building would span what’s currently city right-of-way)
A full City Council vote in September is the next step to a street vacation for the West Coast Self-Storage project planned at 3252 Harbor SW. Today’s Sustainability and Transportation Committee hearing/vote – previewed here on Monday – was unanimously in favor of it (with two of the three committee members – chair Mike O’Brien and Rob Johnson – present) – first item in the Seattle Channel video, after open public comment:
SDOT’s point person on street (and alley) vacations, Beverly Barnett, explained that Nucor’s interest in an adjacent 25,175-square-foot section of unimproved 29th SW – added to the self-storage project’s request for 2,029 sf of unimproved SW City View – dated back to 20 years ago, when tracks were built there as part of a plan that ultimately fell apart. As noted in our preview, the self-storage company is promising a $300,000+ “public-benefit package” including improvements to the Alki Trail, such as moving utility poles. If the street vacation gets final approval, the land also would have to be purchased from the city at fair-market value.
Only one person spoke at today’s hearing, and his concerns involved the 850-storage-unit building’s projected 56-foot height (almost 30′ below what the site’s zoned for), not the street vacation itself. But if you have comments, you can still send them to the council before its September vote – find all councilmembers’ contact info here.
4:50 PM: Just certified by King County, final results from the August 1st primary. See them all here. Advancing to the general election:
SEATTLE MAYOR
Jenny Durkan 51,529 27.9%
Cary Moon 32,536 17.62%
SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL POSITION 8
Teresa Mosqueda 53,676 31.59%
Jon Grant 45,652 26.87%
SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL POSITION 9
M. Lorena González* 108,602 64.17%
Pat Murakami 33,349 19.71%
KING COUNTY EXECUTIVE
Dow Constantine* 304,456 76.99%
Bill Hirt 49,687 12.57%
SEATTLE PORT COMMISSION POSITION 1
John Creighton* 124,884 32.74%
Ryan Calkins 121,177 31.77%
SEATTLE PORT COMMISSION POSITION 3
Stephanie Bowman* 191,203 51.29%
Ahmed Abdi 121,898 32.7%
SEATTLE PORT COMMISSION POSITION 4
Preeti Shridhar 94,679 24.82%
Peter Steinbrueck 91,227 23.92%
And these are final results for the lone local ballot measure:
KING COUNTY PROP 1 (ACCESS FOR ALL SALES-TAX INCREASE)
Reject 211,113 50.9%
Approve 203,633 49.1%
Seattle voter turnout was 40.49%; countywide, 33.76%. The general election (aka voting deadline in our system) will be Tuesday, November 7th.
ADDED 6:28 PM: Both mayoral candidates have e-mailed statements to the media. Read them in their entirety below:
This morning’s City Council briefing meeting included a reminder of a major West Seattle item that’s on the calendar for the Sustainability and Transportation Committee tomorrow afternoon (as announced last month), including public comment if you have something to say about it – a “street vacation” sought in connection with the West Coast Self-Storage project proposed for 3252 Harbor Avenue SW. Above (or here), you can scroll through the slide deck that shows not only what’s proposed and where – one slide notes they expect the building to include ~850 units – but also what’s being offered in exchange for the “vacation.” It’s a request for the city to “vacate” what is currently publicly owned property, technically part of the street system but not being used as such. These requests have to include a “public benefit” package – the slide deck includes a list of what West Coast Self-Storage is offering, valued at more than $300,000, from moving a utility pole off the Alki Trail to including art panels in its building’s exterior. Eventually, the property that’s approved for vacation is sold at fair-market value. Also of note in this case: Nearby Nucor is a party to the vacation request for land that’s technically part of 29th SW and SW City View, seeking “to accommodate” railroad tracks. The proposed “vacation” area otherwise would be covered by the new 4-story self-storage building.
If you have something to say about the vacation request (see the full 81-page document here), be at City Council chambers at City Hall (600 4th Ave.) downtown at the start of Tuesday’s 2 pm committee meeting. If you can’t be there, you can e-mail comments to mike.obrien@seattle.gov – Councilmember Mike O’Brien chairs the committee.
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