Interesting bits from the Community Council meeting with Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith…
- Neighborhood plan: The council endorsed a small and simple grant application for a Wallingford Neighborhood Plan Update. The goals will be to update our 15 year old neighborhood plan and to include new community inputs.
- Meridian School and the Good Shepherd Center: The council unanimously voted that community representatives on the Good Shepherd advisory board should support existing leasing guidelines and oppose granting Meridian School additional space in the center. Members of the community are concerned that not enough space in the building is being allocated to community use, plus there is specific opposition to further Meridian School expansion.
- Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith: Oversees the departments of Neighborhoods, Economic Development, Arts and Cultural Affairs, and Human Services. Ethan Raup is taking over Phil Fuji’s responsibilities as Deputy Mayor of Operations. Smith is currently pushing the walk, bike, ride initiative and the youth and families initiative, along with extending support for the buy local campaign. email: [email protected]
- The farmers’ market: Is getting pushed out of the Wallingford Center due to increased center occupancy. We believe a proposed relocation space on 46th back towards the post office may be too hidden. Darryl will talk to Mike Shaw at SDOT about moving the farmers’ market to Wallingford Avenue and report back to us.
- The 60 million dollar budget shortfall: The mayor has asked all depts. to recommend 9 ½ to 14% budget cuts. There is a push to start putting boots on cars with unpaid parking tickets. Beyond that, the city is looking at funding sources for its priorities, but has not developed any plan as to what taxes to ask of voters or when we will be asked to vote on them.
- Wading pools: Smith says they are expensive to maintain and the administration wants to convert them over to spray feature parks that appeal to a greater age range of kids without the lifeguards. The cutbacks in wading pool hours are part of deemphasizing them.
- Community Police Officers: Smith and new chief John Diaz agree that it was a mistake to get rid of community police officers. Expect changes there.
- Weatherizing & Solar: The city received a $20 million grant from the Dept. of Energy; starting in central and south Seattle, this loan fund will help Seattleites weatherize their homes, plus public and commercial buildings. Audience member noted Photovoltaic Solar Panels installed at Gasworks could generate 20,000 watts of electricity for the Parks Dept.; wants to see similar systems installed on all public buildings.
- Transportation planning: The deputy mayor reiterated opposition to the viaduct tunnel and advocates for getting transit funding on the ballot. Feedback from the audience: The mayor is not planning for commercial and truck traffic, e.g. for all those people bringing produce to farmers markets. Also, the city is thinking about 520 and the tunnel backwards- instead of flat opposition, why not use congestion tolls on single occupant commuters to turn 520 and the tunnel into bus rapid transit corridors?
- The pit on Stoneway: Prescott has a master use permit to develop the lot and an option to purchase it. QFC is waiting for Prescott’s financing to be approved. Feedback: The city is ineffectively asking the community for ways to pretty these pits up- why not pressure developers to unload pits like ours on Stoneway by way of a special tax on these properties?
- Senior Center: Smith is aware of the budget issues and interested in working with the Wallingford Senior Center Board to make it more self-sustaining.
Next month: Presentation by WSDOT representative, Ethan Bancroft, about highway 520, plus a discussion about carbon neutrality with Sustainable Wallingford. In September we are looking to cover land use issues such as the QFC-owned pit on Stoneway and the transfer station rebuild.
Eric, thanks for providing this great summary. Keeping us informed about what’s going on in the ‘hood is is one of the great services that Wallyhood provides.
I don’t think moving the farmers’ market to Wallingford Ave adjacent to the center is such a bad idea. Increased occupancy spurns more business to hard-working locals who need our support. Closing a section of the street for a few hours per week is worthwhile sacrifice. Let’s give ’em the room they need!
Re: pit on Stoneway; Don’t think penalizing the holders of the property is appropriate as they have lost an incredible amount of money when financing was pulled due to the financial crises. Most of them had no options when the bottom fell out. Seems like the ones who need punishing, the investment bankers, are home free, bailed out by all of us while the little developers and small banks were left hanging out to dry. There are lots of ways to look at the situation of the past few years. My guess is that people will be sorting it out for years, if not decades.
Thanks for the positive reinforcement on the notes- it helps.
Regarding the farmer’s market relocation- my understanding is that there was opposition to the market moving out into Wallingford Ave, so that’s why it’s moving down to the post office area. If anybody wants to volunteer the reasoning behind the opposition I’d be curious to know- seems like it would be good for business to have it there and better for the community as well (more centrally located).
The pit on Stoneway is owned by Kroger and there are plans for a grocery with lots of condos on top. Without incentives to sell or develop the space it makes sense for them to sit on the property and try to time the development for condo sales. With incentives they would be forced to move on those plans or sell- selling would be good as we would likely get a reduced development sooner- maybe a different grocer and no condos. Capitalism is just a game with money- nobody is good or evil, but the rules of the game need to be written for the best results.