New design guidelines outlined @ Junction Neighborhood Org.

March 10, 2010 11:56 pm
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 |   Development | West Seattle news

By Johnathon Fitzpatrick
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

During the Junction Neighborhood Organization (JuNO) meeting Tuesday night, attendees were given a walk-through of the new guidelines that the city plans to use for the construction of new multifamily and commercial development.

Despite a cooling in the building construction industry, developers continue to move through Seattle’s Design Review process, including a community input period and a hearing before a community Design Review Board. Engaged West Seattle Junction residents are wanting to learn how to get involved as the process evolve, so they can keep up with developers.

Members of JuNO recounted contentious moments in past hearings, even clashes between citizens and a city representative, as well as cases in which developers showed their group specific designs and then presented the board a different plan.

A senior planner from the city’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD), Cheryl Sizov, acknowledged that “there is a game that gets played,” but she emphasized the marked improvements in transparency and opportunity for community involvement since the design review process was implemented.

She gave JuNO a list of suggestions for becoming more effective in the design-review process:

•Hold ‘Neighborhood Primers’ or ‘about-us’ meetings for board members.
•Write letters to everyone “from the top on down.”
•Get involved in the board-member-recruitment process.
•Remind Design Review Program Manager Vince Lyons to urge board members to become more familiar with the projects.

To improve project familiarity, someone suggested virtual site walk-throughs posted as YouTube videos for board members to watch in conjunction with Google Street View if they couldn’t make it out to a site.

The group said they were happy for the discussion with DPD, and JuNO’s Rene Commons, leading the meeting, said they are likely to support the new guidelines. However, conflicts between neighborhood guidelines and the city-wide building code still exist, while tensions between residents and developers are a challenge for design review boards caught in the middle.

Neighborhood development guidelines may be at the mercy of city code legally, but Sizov says “you cannot legislate good design.” She believes board members have the ability to use their influence to effectively mediate the process. “There’s a lot more done in the world through influence than control.”

Meantime, the new guidelines are in a citizen-comment period – you have till March 31 to tell the city what you think. You can review them here.

The Junction Neighborhood Organization meets on the second Tuesday, every other month.

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