Neighborhood Plans Vote Today

09/22/2008

Seattle has less time and money to update its neighborhood plans than it did ten years ago. That massive effort reinvented the whole city in one big push. This time the city will work on only a few neighborhoods at a time. It's a subject the city council is scheduled to take up today (Monday). KUOW's Joshua McNichols has more.

THE CITY WILL FOCUS FIRST ON THREE NEIGHBORHOODS SURROUNDING THE NEW LIGHT RAIL STATIONS IN SOUTHEAST SEATTLE. THEY INCLUDE THE BEACON HILL STATION, THE MOUNT BAKER STATION, AND THE OTHELLO STREET STATION. RAIL SERVICE IS SCHEDULED TO START THERE BY NEXT JULY. COUNCILMEMBER SALLY CLARK SAYS THAT'S WHERE DEVELOPERS WANT TO BUILD.

CLARK: "Already in the Rainier Valley, I'm seeing a lot of developer interest in areas that really this level of interest hasn't been seen for decades. I think what we want to help the communities do is make sure that before this development really takes off and remakes the map of that neighborhood, the community has a chance to look at their neighborhood plan."

THE FIRST NEIGHBORHOOD PLANS WERE STARTED TEN YEARS AGO. GROUPS OF NEIGHBORS MET IN LIBRARIES, COFFEE SHOPS, AND LIVING ROOMS. THEY KNEW GROWTH WAS COMING,. BUT THEY WANTED SOME SAY OVER HOW THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS WOULD CHANGE. THE PLANS WERE SUPPOSED TO COVER 20 YEARS OF GROWTH, BUT AFTER A DECADE, MANY OF THEM ALREADY LOOK OBSOLETE.

NOT ALL THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLANS WILL NEED UPDATING, BUT EVENTUALLY, SOME CHANGE WILL BE NEEDED. IN 2011, THE STATE WILL RELEASE A NEW FORECAST FOR HOW THE REGION WILL GROW. STATE LAW REQUIRES CITIES TO PLAN FOR THAT GROWTH. THE CITY COUNCIL VOTES THIS AFTERNOON ON WHETHER TO START THE FIRST THREE NEIGHBORHOOD PLANS.

FOR KUOW I'M JOSHUA MCNICHOLS

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