As the Delridge District Council met tonight inside the theater at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, posters decorated the center’s walls, promoting its upcoming 5th-anniversary party. Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association runs Youngstown, and its executive director Derek Birnie announced the February 26th party to celebrate the Cultural Arts Center’s fifth anniversary, which also will be a sendoff for two longtime DNDA employees as well as an open house (all detailed here).

Also announced at tonight’s meeting – Mayor McGinn is tentatively planning a visit to tour the Westwood neighborhood, according to Delridge district coordinator Ron Angeles. The date looks like March 6th, and so far the starting point is expected to be the new P-Patch site at 34th and Barton. More to come on that.

Also discussed tonight – a new citywide project that could bring a rain garden to a Delridge business … read on for that and more:

SUSTAINABLE RAIN: Amy Waterman from Sustainable Seattle briefed the council on a rain-garden project called “Sustainable Rain.” Over the next year, they hope to install five rain gardens at businesses in five neighborhoods – West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Central District, Duwamish, and White Center are the neighborhoods. Right now, they are looking for potential participants – there’s some information on the Sustainable Seattle website, with more to come; you can e-mail amy@sustainableseattle.org to find out more.

WEST SEATTLE BE PREPARED: As council chair Mat McBride noted, Delridge was overdue for a briefing on this peninsula-wide preparedness effort. Cindi Barker made a guest appearance to talk about it – less than two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Nisqually earthquake. West Seattle organizers are now involved at a citywide level too – but what you need to know is, there are nine “hubs” for the peninsula – places to go for communications coordination and information on how to get help, in case of catastrophe – explore the West Seattle Be Prepared site and find out how to make sure you’re ready; if you don’t think your neighborhood is adequately covered, step up and get involved! (Cindi noted she will be at the North Delridge Neighborhood Council next month, so you can mark your calendar for 6:30 pm March 14, Delridge Library, if you’d like to hear about WSBP in person, and ask questions.)

WEST SEATTLE TRIANGLE PRESENTATION: Susan McLain (a West Seattleite) is the city planner leading the planning process for The Triangle’s future; on the heels of last week’s community open house, she’s still making the rounds talking with community groups, and the Delridge council was the latest stop. She gave a topline presentation on what’s been discussed and what’s envisioned; if you missed last week’s coverage, the presentations from the community open house can be viewed here. Pigeon Point’s Pete Spalding asked McLain how the city can assure the community that this process might not result in another stalled project like “The Hole”; her answer was that “The Hole” was something of a unique case, not necessarily a result of city policies, though she also said honestly, the city can’t do anything to reassure – but in this case, the policies are trying to get a little further out ahead of where things stand, to help direct future development “so buildings are consistent with neighborhood vision for the area … less antagonism between developer and community … in terms of encouraging good development happening.” The zoning proposal may go to the City Council in April or May, according to McLain.

Angeles asked McLain for advice on how Delridge could start the process of designing a gateway, since Delridge too is a gateway to West Seattle. She suggested that the first step might be talking to City Council members, since it does require “staffing allocation” from city departments, SDOT as well as DPD. DNDA’s Birnie also asked about connectivity between The Triangle and Delridge – maybe through Camp Long. McLain couldn’t make any promises but did see some possibilities for this being brought into the process.

DEPARTMENT OF NEIGHBORHOODS’ FUTURE: Chair McBride mentioned that the CIty Neighborhood Council has sent a letter to the mayor in search of clarification on the department’s future, which McBride described as – in light of recent changes – “very much up in the air.”

NEIGHBORHOOD GRANT DEADLINES: To summarize – many of them are coming up. Council leaders point out that these aren’t just paperwork projects – they have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of projects that improved local neighborhoods, such as traffic-calming measures. The district council also needs people to help vet proposals. Here’s more information on what types of grants are available and when their deadlines are.

BUSINESS-DISTRICT GRANT APPLICATION: Some discussion centered around the business district grants announced today by the city, and the fact that a Delridge application on which DNDA and West Seattle Chamber of Commerce had worked was not among the recipients. Brainstorming ensued on what might improve the area’s chances of getting a grant next time.

SENDOFF FOR RON ANGELES: Pigeon Point’s Spalding reminded all that a February 24th party is planned for the longtime community advocate as he retires from his Department of Neighborhoods position, and all are welcome. “Bring your community-building stories,” he exhorted council-meeting attendees.

DELRIDGE PLAYFIELD CELEBRATION: As noted here yesterday, the field’s renovations are officially complete, and a community celebration is planned for 12:30 pm March 12th.

The Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meets on the third Wednesday of the month, 7 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW), all welcome – and you are also welcome to come early for the monthly Strategic Delridge meeting that precedes it at 6 pm.