From Wednesday night’s Southwest District Council meeting:
TERMINAL 5 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: Admiral neighbors who have gotten their wish – for a full environmental review of the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 5 modernization plan – returned to the SWDC to talk about the issues on which they would like to see the community focus, as the “online open house” continues at T5EIS.publicmeeting.info, and as next Thursday’s “scoping meeting” approaches.
Top of the list: Shore power for ships docking at Terminal 5. Without it, the neighbors fear, the new “big ships” will be running their engines for days at a time, polluting the air. Another issue: Noise. They’ve talked to BNSF about a “quiet zone” for trains at the terminal – they say BNSF supports the idea but is not willing to foot the bill (creating no-horn “quiet zones” requires additional early-warning equipment at each crossing).
SWDC’s Cindi Barker from the Morgan Community Association asked a pointed question: Why would someone who doesn’t live near T-5 want to comment?
Jim Wojciechowski offered several reasons, including the traffic that’ll be created by trucks carrying the extra containers from the super-sized ships that T-5 is being modernized to handle. He says SDOT hasn’t yet worked out how it will handle this increased traffic.
The neighborhood group has a Facebook page with suggested comments, and also a new petition online – go here, comment via the port’s website for the process, and attend the meeting if you can – 5:30-8:30 pm Thursday, November 12th, at The Hall at Fauntleroy.
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION HUBS: This agenda item was led by Barker, who announced a new hub for West Seattle – Hope Lutheran got a city matching-funds grant to set one up at its location on the west side of The Junction. (Find out more about the hubs here, and be sure to know where your nearest one is.) She also says it’s time to start getting ready for a big emergency drill next June, Cascadia Rising, which will, over the course of multiple days, simulate a 9.2 earthquake. She suggested this might be an opportunity to revisit the West Seattle emergency-preparedness summit in 2007 that preceded the creation of the “hubs.” SWDC members were supportive of the idea.
NEXT YEAR’S OFFICERS: Co-chairs David Whiting of the Admiral Neighborhood Association and Eric Iwamoto of the Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights Community Council agreed to serve another year; Vicki Schmitz-Block from the Fauntleroy Community Association volunteered to serve as secretary. (District Councils are all-volunteer, no-compensation organizations.)
NEXT MONTH’S MEETING: A briefing on the city’s Housing And Livability Agenda (HALA) is planned, as its components are continuing to go before the City Council.
The Southwest District Council meets first Wednesdays, 6:30 pm, at the Sisson Building in The Junction.
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