CRIME TRENDS UPDATE: Southwest Precinct operations Lt. Pierre Davis said, “We’re reaping the rewards (of recent arrests) right now” – saying burglaries, car prowls, auto thefts are down. Even strongarm robberies, though other parts of the city are way up. West Seattle, said Lt. Davis, has had five in the past two months. He urges anyone interested to contact SPD to come out for Block Watch or other neighborhood presentations, CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) evaluations, etc. They want to really stress this before summer arrives along with criminals trying “more inventive things” … to “see if we can keep our bad guys in, and for individuals who want to be bad, give them the proper reward for their work.”

Morgan Community Association‘s Chas Redmond asked Lt. Davis what will happen if White Center and other adjacent areas vote in November to be annexed by Burien (that city’s council decided earlier this week to seek that vote); he said it’s too soon to say, though Seattle has a good relationship with Burien PD and other neighboring departments. He also was asked about issues including when to call police about someone “loitering in the bushes” – contact your Community Police Team officer if it is not a “happening now” issue – and parking enforcement, with people in the Triangle/Fairmount area parking in ways causing safety and visibility problems. “If it’s something that can be enforced, we’ll enforce it,” Lt. Davis promised.

Now, the non-West Seattle-specific briefings:

SEATTLE WATERFRONT/SEAWALL: Planning continues on what is hoped ultimately to be a waterfront “that people want to go to,” Steve Pearce – central waterfront project manager for SDOT – told the SWDC. Cost estimate, finance plan, and strategic plan are part of what’s coming up as the city works on its waterfront vision/plan – including the seawall replacement – now that the Alaskan Way Viaduct is coming down. Waterfront design is to be done by the end of 2015, as the deep-bored tunnel opens for traffic if all goes as scheduled, enabling demolition of what’s left of the Viaduct. The seawall – replacing the “untreated timber structure under Alaskan Way” – is to be done by then, though, the SWDC was told – phase 1, at least, with phase 2 to follow after 2020. It’s hoped that the replacement will improve fish habitat, with improvements including a “light-penetrating surface” in the sidewalk. (“It would be nice to catch fish off the waterfront again,” observed SWDC co-chair Tony Fragada, president of the Alki Community Council.)

Overall, a Central Waterfront Committee that looks at related issues, including possibly some kind of entity that would actually “maintain and program the waterfront,” according to Pearce. The area they’re looking at covers 26 blocks. The renderings shown are very different from what you see along the downtown waterfront today – with pedestrian and seating areas in abundance rather than the current fairly narrow strip of sidewalk abutting the street.

(See the entire presentation here – warning, sizable PDF.)

“Possibilities” under discussion include grandstand seating or a roller rink at Pier 62/63, maybe a swimming pool on a barge that could be brought in for the summer, and a plaza by the Seattle Aquarium, plus a “major new public space” crossing from Victor Steinbrueck Park north of Pike Place Market all the way down to the waterfront.

(New waterfront condos were part of the rendering too.) Separate from all the envisioned amenities is the street design, showing where traffic flow would split up around Pike Street, onto a new north-south street heading north from there. And there will be some novel means of pedestrian flow too – perhaps even escalators in spots where people need to get up or down a steep incline.

The waterfront will include a “very high-quality bicycle facility [path],” too, Pearce promised.

He showed what happens if you don’t continue into the tunnel, coming from the south – heading onto Alaskan Way or onto First Avenue South, to get into downtown, once the Viaduct and its midtown ramps are gone. Transit is still reviewing how it’s getting into downtown, he noted (as has been discussed in a low-key way at some of Metro’s recent public meetings). How busy will the roads be? 35,000 trips a day are envisioned starting south of Colman Dock, four times the current volume, in 2030 – NOT taking into account the possibility of higher volumes with a tolled tunnel. Waterfront Alaskan Way is being designed, as a result, with two lanes each way.

The southernmost section, from King to Yesler, he acknowledged, is “the hardest to explain” because the street is being “used different ways at different times to achieve our goals.” It will have “flex lanes” in which parking/loading will be allowed at “off-peak times” (9 am-3 pm, weekends, most likely) and the configuration will change at other times – northbound in afternoon/evening peak, for example, two lanes will be reserved for ferry traffic, two fo rthrough travel, no parking. In morning peak, the same direction would include one ferry lane, two through lanes, and one transit lane, no parking lanes. Overhead signs are most likely what will show people which lane is which – unless “more elegant” solutions arise before all this is built, he allowed. That section of the waterfront might take two cycles for a pedestrian to cross if they’re moving a little slower than average, so the median will be made a safe place to wait between cycles.

During seawall construction, there will be at least three travel lanes under the Alaskan Way Viaduct, in case you’re wondering (Redmond was). “We intend that Alaskan Way (will be) always open for traffic” during the seawall project, he declared.

What about funding? asked Junction Association rep Susan Melrose. The plan isn’t final, Steve said, but part of it – more than $200 million – is expected to come from a Local Improvement District that will be set up to charge property owners who stand to benefit from all this. That won’t quite cover the almost $300 million estimate, he said, for the street part of the project alone, but the state is covering a share too, so the “transportation portion” is covered, he said. They’re also hoping for philanthropy – “significant nonprofit donations” are hoped for. The seawall, though, will likely be funded by a citywide ballot measure, he suggested, adding that the project already is up to 35 percent design.

Find out more at waterfrontseattle.org.

CITY CLIMATE ACTION PLAN: This was the subject of the night’s second briefing, by city rep Sara Wysocki, talking about the city’s goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. She said the city’s not going to be overtly Big Brother in this area – “we’re not going to tell you what you can buy and what you can eat” – but will work on making information available. Technical Advisory Groups have been set up to “analyze and recommend” strategies for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. These groups will brief City Council on April 23rd for the first time in this process – not on detailed plans, but on the “bones of the plan,” said Wysocki.

A “Green Ribbon Commission” also is to be convened – made up of “civic, business, environmental, and social-equity leaders” – to review proposed strategies so that they are not in conflict with “job creation, affordable housing, public health, and social equity.” Public comment will be solicited once the April 23rd briefing happens. And Wysocki says she’d be happy to go speak with any community group interested in more dialogue on the topic. The draft plan is to come out in October, with the public-comment period on that open through December. Meantime, they’re also looking for proposals for community climate-action projects, with contracts to be awarded for up to $7,000. “These don’t have to be very big projects,” Wysocki said – maybe your street, your book club, your PTA, “your definition of community.” There’s more info on this at seattlecan.org.

COMMUNITY POWER WORKS: Briefing #3 was by Jessica Farmer, talking about this program we’ve already covered here on WSB, as Community Power Works signed on as a sponsor to get the word out about this city-run energy-efficiency-upgrade project. Through the program, you can pay $95 for a home energy assessment that would usually cost $400. And they’ll work with you to figure out ways to “identify upgrade opportunities and incentives,” averaging $2,000 in value. They’re hoping to have 2,000 home upgrades done within the next 14 months, helping homeowners “achieve 15% energy savings” – so far, though, she says savings are averaging almost twice that. P.S. Need a new heating system? She says “extra incentives” are available for “switching to high-efficiency heating.” There’s a small-business program as part of CPW too, for restaurants and small-to-medium-size grocery and convenience stores, and those assessments are free of charge. Followup questions from SWDC members included whether there are incentives for solar; not under this project, Farmer said, but they work with Seattle City Light which does.

TOTEM POLE: Carol Vincent from the Southwest Seattle Historical Society says their totem pole is finally going up next month, no date set yet, though, as restoration work has not been completed.

EVENTS COMING UP: April 21 Gathering of Neighbors … June 23 Morgan Junction Community Festival … and before then, the next meeting of the SW District Council, on May 2nd.

FIGHTING/PREVENTING CRIME: Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Pierre Davis announced a public-safety forum for 7 pm March 29th at the precinct (Delridge/Webster), focused on a very specific section of northeastern West Seattle, from the bridge to Boren, centered on Delridge Way SW and the adjacent streets. Lt. Davis explained, “We want to try to strengthen the Block Watch capabilities (there) … (since) we really got hammered with petty crimes and burglaries” in recent months, though as he recapped, multiple arrests have made a big dent in that previous trend. He said the “if you see something, say something” philosophy is helping bring in more tips from citizens in other areas of West Seattle, but they would like to see more tips come in from the Delridge neighborhood, and are hoping that the forum might educate more people on best practices for preventing and reporting crime/suspicious activity.

Next, two reports from SDOT, on current work and a future event:

(Photo from Ventana Construction [WSB sponsor] Facebook page – work on SE corner of California/Findlay)
RAPIDRIDE-RELATED STREET/SIDEWALK WORK UPDATE: SDOT’s Jonathan Dong, who had spoken to the SWDC before about the construction, was there with James Sido, a rep from the construction company that’s working on the right-of-way changes (Tri-State) to facilitate RapidRide Line C, which Metro is launching to replace West Seattle’s Route 54 this fall. (We reported last month on the start of work in south West Seattle.) The Rose, Webster, and Myrtle stops on Fauntleroy have now received their new concrete, though Sido said that the Myrtle concrete “had an issue” and needs to be redone, which is “high on their priority list to get that area up to speed as quickly as they can.”

The work that’s happening in north Morgan Junction right now is drainage work, he said, with a new stop to be located there; he also mentioned the major work on the northbound side of California at Findlay. Sido explained that the landowner was going to have some side-sewer work done, and asked that this be folded into the RapidRide-related construction project. He says the next areas where you’ll see work crews are Fauntleroy/California near Zeeks Pizza and the southbound side of California at Findlay. They hope to have this segment of work “substantially completed” by May.

Dong reiterated, in response to a question, that stops further south, such as the Fauntleroy ferry dock vicinity and Westwood Village, are being handled by county crews. Morgan Community Association rep Chas Redmond asked SDOT’s Dong to make sure someone takes a look at the areas along California where Puget Sound Energy has done gas line work and left behind a “temporary patch.”

Dong says the rechannelization of SW Alaska – changing a car lane to a transit lane and removing some parking, among other changes that he acknowledged are “going to be the most visible change in the community” – will likely happen in early April. They want to “blanket the area for one or two blocks in both directions” with reminders, and Dong says that’ll happen about two weeks before the work is done. What’s holding up the scheduling right now is that they’re waiting on the traffic-signal work. The work will take a few days and will likely start around 7 am, said Sedo, though Erica Karlovits of the Junction Neighborhood Organization suggested they might consider starting later to avoid rush-hour complications. Dong thinks the work will take two to four days, weather-dependent, of course. Karlovits and West Seattle Junction Association‘s Susan Melrose both stressed that the more warning, the better, since the lane and parking changes will be a surprise (if not shock) to some people, both shoppers, businesspeople/employees, and Junction-area residents.

Admiral Neighborhood Association vice president Karl de Jong asked the two if the projects were creating jobs in West Seattle, and also about what kind of labor and apprenticeship agreements were involved; they didn’t have answers but promised to get back to him. Next SDOT topic:

(WSB photo from 2011 Seattle Summer Streets on Alki)
SUMMER STREETS/CAR-FREE DAY: SDOT’s Sonia Palma talked about the 5th annual car-free day on Alki as part of Seattle Summer Streets. As reported here last month, the date this year is May 20th, starting with the West Seattle 5K (co-sponsored again this year by WSB). Palma says the street-closure plan is the same as last year, with a full closure from 63rd to Don Armeni for the race, and then, after 11 am or so, the closure only extending eastward to 58th SW for the Summer Streets remainder of the day. SDOT is currently looking for sponsors and organizations interested in participating, while also asking community reps to get the word out about the big day.

Even more from tonight’s meeting, including quick updates on key projects that individual groups are focusing on, ahead:

COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM: David Keyes, the city’s community-technology program manager, said April 3rd is the deadline for community technology grant applications – one for technology literacy and access; grants of up to $20,000 area available, supported by cable-franchise fees. Civic engagement projects are the other category, he said – and that doesn’t just mean Internet projects, he said. You can find out all about it at seattle.gov/tech.

He also mentioned an upcoming contest,”Apps for Seattle” – April 27th-29th at City Hall, a “StartupWeekend-dot-gov” type of event, a developer-intensive “crunching” weekend will be held – partly, Keyes said, to see “what else can we do with the city’s data.seattle.gov portal … and make that more available to the public in different formats?” They’ll be looking for community ideas on what kind of applications will be most useful. After that, they’ll have till August to submit their apps. So if you know developers, get the word out! The site for the contest isn’t ready to launch yet, though.

GATHERING OF NEIGHBORS UPDATE: From Chas Redmond – student musicians, a martial-arts troupe, possibly some breakdancers are among the entertainment lined up so far for the April 21st Gathering of Neighbors community-building fair/open house event, happening at Chief Sealth International High School.; speakers will include the legendary Jim “Neighbor Power!” Diers. Keep tabs on the event by going here, till their new website is up within a week or so. (We’ll publish an update when that happens.) Redmond mentioned they’re trying to get the South Park area involved in GoN this year, too.

TELL THE STORY OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD: Lois Maag from the Department of Neighborhoods talked about a contest that’ll be held for community videos as part of the Seattle Center 50th anniversary celebration – and they’re looking to ALL communities/neighborhoods, not just those near the center. Find out all the details here.

Toward the start of the meeting, there was a turn around the table for updates on projects that participating organizations are working on:

WEST SEATTLE JUNCTION ASSOCIATION: From Susan Melrose: WSJA is moving ahead with West Seattle Summer Fest – they’re going to try to bring back a second entertainment stage this year, and they’re also working with Sustainable West Seattle to bring back the sustainability-focused GreenLife activities area. Later in the year, she said, the WS Junction Car Show will be back.

JUNCTION NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZATION: They’re working on the dog-waste issue that has roiled folks in the neighborhood (it’s been a hot topic in the WSB Forum). Dog owners just aren’t scooping, and that’s a health hazard, among other things, so strategy is being plotted to try to tackle the problem.

FAUNTLEROY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: With the Barton Street Pump Station expansion project and RapidRide stations/stops, there are three projects that’ll be under construction soon in Fauntleroy, per Vlad Oustimovitch. He also mentioned FCA’s annual membership meeting, Food Fest, coming up on March 20th, at The Hall at Fauntleroy.

UNSUNG HEROES: Michael Shilley from the Highland Park Action Committee and Delridge Neighborhoods District Council talked about the Unsung Heroes banquet coming up – they’re still looking for nominees, and have received 13 so far. (Here’s our previous story.)

ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: Vice president Karl de Jong said planning continues for the Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series, and ANA continues to support the Admiral District’s new business association.

SOUTHWEST SEATTLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY: March 18th, they’re inviting people, particularly youth and elders, to Southwest Library to be part of the forthcoming “Telling Our Westside Stories” exhibit, talking about both memories and places they enjoy now. SWSHS is particularly interested in more participating from the southern communities – Highland Park, White Center, South Park. RSVP to loghousemuseum@comcast.net.

MORGAN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: Chas Redmond mentioned the work under way at Lowman Beach in preparation for the Murray Basin CSO-control project. Also: The Morgan Junction Community Festival is June 23rd.

ALKI COMMUNITY COUNCIL: President Tony Fragada said that ACC is continuing to work on addressing the problem of landslides in the area.

The Southwest District Council, comprised of representatives from community councils and other organizations primarily based in western West Seattle, meets monthly, usually the first Wednesday, 7 pm, in the board room at South Seattle Community College on Puget Ridge.

METRO RESTRUCTURING PROPOSAL, SECOND DRAFT, FIRST MEETING: These are changes that Metro wants to implement when RapidRide debuts in West Seattle this September. The new draft came out just hours before the Wednesday night meeting; our first set of toplines is here, and a round of community conversations is ahead (see the calendar here). At the SWDC meeting, Metro planner Jack Lattemann told the council they were the first community group getting a briefing. The newest proposals for individual routes are linked from a dropdown menu on the right side of this page; here’s what he highlighted:

*Route 120 will not get additional service but will go to Westwood Village and connect there with other Metro routes.

*Route 125 would operate on weekdays matching SSCC hours, till 10 pm, with a “pretty full weekday schedule,” but no weekend service at all. It WILL go downtown, but it won’t connect to the 11, Lattemann clarified upon a followup question from SSCC rep Candace Oehler. The lack of weekend service also was questioned by Dorsol Plants, a council rep who also happens to be an SSCC employee and student.

*Route 128 has one new proposal in Round 2 – it would be extended as far north in Admiral as Atlantic Street; the route also would be upgraded to “every half-hour at all times, with service hours extended till at least midnight, 7 days a week, connecting the 3 Junctions at a pretty consistent service level.” The idea of running it on SW Genesee will not work because a signal is needed at Avalon/Genesee, and the money was in the “levy that didn’t pass,” Lattemann said (challenged by Admiral’s Karl de Jong, who said that SDOT told him that light is on the schedule for 2013).

*New Route 20 would start from California/Lander, where the 128 starts, and match its current routing from Admiral District to 16th SW, as an east-west connector, with more frequent service than the 128 now has there (this was previously proposed as Route 40)

*21 would still end at Westwood Village, but would become “the third route in West Seattle with a 15-minute service level”

*22 would retain some service between The Junction and Westwood Village via Gatewood, and then would loop the route through part of Shorewood/Arbor Heights, 7 day a week till 7 pm, once an hour, providing a “basic level of service” rather than going away entirely

*55 would retain service during peak hours, 5 morning and 5 afternoon, same current stop locations

*21 through Arbor Heights would keep 4 morning and 4 afternoon trips

*For those still concerned about RapidRide, Lattemann noted that it will operate earlier, later, and more frequently than the current Route 54, which it will replace.

Lattemann was grilled on how much of a change Metro will be willing to make in this round before finalizing its plan – particularly regarding the effects on SSCC. He said that for example, if weekend service were to be restored for a route serving SSCC, something else in the West Seattle area would have to go. Later, after the Metro reps had left, SSCC’s Oehler mentioned that it’s unheard of for an institution like SSCC not to have Saturday bus service, and she will be looking for support as they campaign to get Metro to include Saturdays in the plan. “We’re not asking for more (service) – we asked to maintain the current level,” Oehler said.

How will RapidRide get downtown? Lattemann was asked. For now, he says, they’re proposing that the C Line use the Alaskan Way Viaduct and get off at Seneca Street, as the 54 does now, though obviously that will be gone when the tunnel opens, so there’s a “question long-term about where transit should go.” The C Line would go up to 3rd Avenue from there and “become the D Line to Ballard.”

In addition to the upcoming meetings, you can also comment on the newest Metro plan by taking an online survey.

(P.S. The night after this meeting, Metro delivered its second community briefing, at the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting, which we covered for partner site White Center Now – you can read it here if interested.)

COUNCILMEMBER SALLY BAGSHAW: She now chairs the Parks and Neighborhoods Committee – she says those two functions were joined at her request, both “intrinsically connected with our quality of life.” So she’s making the rounds of neighborhoods “to find out what’s most important to them.” She says all neighborhoods want to be “safe, green, and connected” – so that’s her theme for the year. In particular, she’s excited about the “neighborhood greenways” concept, taking inspiration from Portland, which already has 60 miles of these non-arterial streets, focused on walking and biking. As reported here last fall, she’s already visited Delridge to talk about a possible one for 26th SW – here’s a photo from that visit:

(October 2011 photo by Mike Dady)
She says Seattle departments are coming together “to make this happen.” The first year, they expect to have 7 miles of greenways created in Seattle. North Seattle will get the first; private donors, such as Children’s Hospital in the north end, are participating too. … She also talked about the latest round of community-center cuts, which she says kept all the centers open (though she did not mention that Southwest Community Center is no longer a community center). She says the process that resulted in those decisions is one she would now like to apply to the Department of Neighborhoods, to find out what services people would most like to get out of that department.

She then went around the table to ask SWDC reps what they wish worked better, when they work with the city. And she got an earful – from neighborhood input on planning issues that doesn’t seem to have been taken into account, to departments not speaking with each other, to public-works projects that suddenly appear out of nowhere without local notification. The talk eventually came around to the recent Triangle rezoning process, in which the final result included elements that did not emerge from the citizen-advisory-group process. “We ended with a major upzone with no input,” flatly declared Sharonn Meeks from Fairmount, who had been on the Triangle Advisory Group. Meeks also mentioned the process two years ago when hundreds of West Seattleites participated in a neighborhood-plan-update discussion – and then never heard the results of their work, whether anything would ever come of it.

“15 years ago, the neighborhood engagement was genuine; now, it’s (part of a checklist),” noted Vlad Oustimovitch from the Fauntleroy Community Association, after Erica Karlovits from the Junction Neighborhood Organization underscored how recent “processes” – the Triangle rezoning, Junction parking reviews – seemed to have outcomes determined by the city regardless of what local participates showed and told them. “We all got blindsided by an upzone,” SWDC co-chair Susan Melrose of the WS Junction Association said, explaining to Bagshaw that the proposal came into the advisory-council “process” at “the end.”

Bagshaw listened and asked what would “better management” of the process “look like.” Oustimovitch suggested, for one, that it be clearly spelled out what the community would get for each additional foot of height a developer would get. “Maybe additional greenspace at the ground level, maybe additional parking for the business area …”

One other issue came up: Melrose brought up the fact that Junction Plaza Park is under siege from dogs and owners who don’t clean up after them. She wondered if something that small should just be off-limits to “pet pottying,” period.

GATHERING OF NEIGHBORS: (This briefing preceded the news release we published here on Friday.) April 21st is the date; event director Michael Taylor-Judd briefed SWDC on what’s in the works so far. It’ll run 11 am-3 pm for the public, preceded by a 2-hour neighborhood/leadership-building program with local leaders and featured speakers (Jim Diers of “Neighbor Power” fame). It’ll include a resource fair. It’ll be on a relatively low budget – they’d been seeking a grant but “just found out today we’re not getting it.” So it’ll be an all-volunteer production. (The event, originated by the now-defunct Megawatt nonprofit, was taken over by Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association when Megawatt called it quits, but DNDA is no longer able to stage it.)

ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENTED AT TONIGHT’S MEETING: Just in case you wondered. Unlike January, this meeting was a full house – the U-shaped table was full with reps from the West Seattle Junction Association, Junction Neighborhood Organization, Fauntleroy Community Association, Alki Community Council, Highland Park Action Committee, Morgan Community Association, West Seattle Senior Center, Admiral Neighborhood Association, Southwest Seattle Historical Society, Fairmount Community Association, South Seattle Community College, West Seattle Blockwatch Captains’ Network, West Seattle Be Prepared, .

STREET-TREE ORDINANCE: Lots of discussion after we covered last month’s West Seattle community meeting about proposed changes to the city rules, which haven’t changed in half a century. City arborist Nolan Rundquist stressed that they are looking for as much comment and opinion as possible – here’s how – before this gets to the City Council. His summary: The proposed rule will better define who’s responsible for which trees, public or private, and a “no-fee permit process” will be put into place to deal with removal, pruning, replacement, etc., as well as who is allowed to handle such tasks. But he says “small work” – such as pruning branches that aren’t bigger than two inches in diameter – won’t require a permit.

FAUNTLEROY EXPRESSWAY: The council had invited project communications consultant Josh Stepherson back to provide an update once the intensive phase of the earthquake-safety work, with some overnight closures (next ones Jan. 9-12), got under way on the west end of the West Seattle Bridge. Morgan Community Association rep Chas Redmond asked about an anomaly he’d spotted (which we have noticed too, in late-night drives):

That anomaly: “Bridge closed” signs are turning up much earlier, some nights, than when the work actually begins. That problem should be fixed now, said another project rep, because they have reminded workers not to put the signs out until just before they are ready to close the west end of the bridge for the actual work – in some cases, apparently, they had indeed put them out a few hours early. (Watch here for the latest on closures, and we’ll update you on announcements too.) According to Stepherson, the work remains on track to be completed by June.

COUNCIL PRESIDENT RICHARD CONLIN: He’s expected to turn over that title to Councilmember Sally Clark at the council’s first meeting of 2012 next Monday, but still had a lot of big-picture information to share. For one: He said the Department of Neighborhoods needs to be revisited, proactively, regarding its role in city government. The council and mayor will be talking about that over the next six months, he said. Next: The 2013-2014 budget that’ll be put together later this year looks “grim.” Even though the economy in general is promising, according to Conlin, that won’t improve the revenue picture, so there are “tough decisions” ahead.

Next: Development and planning, now that he is expected to be chairing the renamed committee handling those areas (Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability). That turned talk to the recent council approval of Triangle rezoning; Redmond asked about building height – since part of it will allow 85-foot buildings – and potential “dark urban canyons.” Conlin’s reply: There are policies about public views, but not private.

The last big topic was transportation. He had general words of praise for West Seattle-area proposals submitted to SDOT, but no specifics, even when Admiral Neighborhood Association vice president Karl de Jong pressed him on a major sore spot for that area – the request for a stoplight at 47th/Admiral, where ANA recently led a demonstration (WSB coverage here) centered on a tribute to Tatsuo Nakata, the City Council staffer killed while crossing there five years ago. Conlin said the city is well aware of the concerns, but did not commit to any action (the intersection is on the list of potential new-signal locations, but it’s a list that isn’t attached to much money, so progress tends to be slow).

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS LETTER: One more note – councilmembers will vote by e-mail on whether to send the City Council a letter asking that emergency preparedness be a priority for Council planning this year (there wasn’t a quorum of reps last night to finalize it then). The draft letter includes this paragraph:

“Actively support Emergency Preparedness on the individual, neighborhood and District levels and recognize the needs and critical importance of the work of Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management in encouraging and supporting citizens to work with their neighbors to improve Emergency Preparedness in Seattle.”

Cindi Barker of West Seattle Be Prepared was there to discuss the topic with the council. (P.S. Know where your emergency-communication hub is? Find it!)

SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY’S FUTURE: We’re writing about this topic separately; we’re told reps also will be at the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting in two weeks (Wednesday, January 18th, 7 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center), if you’d like to hear from them firsthand.

The Southwest District Council – which includes reps from major community councils and other organizations around western West Seattle – meets the first Wednesday of most months, 7 pm at South Seattle Community College‘s board room.

(Click to see full-size PDF)
When we first reported on Metro‘s proposed 2012 changes last week, it looked like your first chance to see an official presentation in West Seattle would be Metro’s November 9th and 17th meetings. Now there’s late word of an earlier chance: Metro’s now on the agenda for this Wednesday night’s meeting of the Southwest District Council, 7 pm at South Seattle Community College‘s board room, and yes, as always, it’s a public meeting. Also on the agenda: A presentation about the changes SDOT is making on West Seattle streets to accommodate next year’s Metro West Seattle RapidRide debut (including SW Alaska rechannelization). SSCC’s at 6000 16th SW; the board room is in the Robert Smith Building – campus map here, building map here.

P.S. An online survey about the Metro proposal is now available, with questions about how it would affect you – you can take the survey here.

That’s a screenshot from seattle.changeby.us, which has just gone “live,” as Code for America‘s Anna Bloom told SWDC reps. She and other Code for America fellows have been working on projects for Seattle (among other cities) off and on for months, as local community groups (with whom they’ve met, while listening to needs and vetting ideas) are well aware. The site is meant to be collaborative – if you have an idea, you can type it in the Post-It Note-like space on the Change By Us home page, and then it’ll take you into the site, where you have the option to hook up with any similar proposals already in the system, or to just go ahead and launch yours. Bloom explained that it offers options for sharing your idea, in order to get others involved, and other ways to get traction. Now that it’s live, in “beta” mode, you’re invited to give it a try.

Second note: Waste Management Northwest, which handles much of the trash/recycling pickup around here, came to SWDC because it’s in the final stages of planning “Neighborhood Recycling Rewards.” It’s a contest aimed at helping Seattle boost its recycling rate (relatively high as it is, there’s room for it to rise), and it’s going to be in the “neighborhood vs. neighborhood” mode. Whichever WM-served neighborhood “reduces the most waste through increased recycling and composting” during the six-month contest will get $50,000 to use for some kind of community improvement project.

WMNW came to the council with a couple of questions – whether SWDC could be the official WS community partner, including helping decide what the “prize” might be if this area wins. Also to be decided: How to define a neighborhood for this competition, since West Seattle includes three different pickup-day zones. Will the entire peninsula be counted as one neighborhood? Just so happened that Delridge Neighborhoods District Council chair Mat McBride was at the meeting, and invited WM to to DNDC’s next gathering (7 pm September 21st, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center) to pitch there too. Once the contest is under way on September 30th, WM promises weekly online updates on neighborhood performance, and then an award ceremony next March.

Though the $2.4 million Fauntleroy Expressway Seismic Retrofit Project is already under way – that’s what you seein our photo, taken this morning along eastbound Spokane Street under The Bridge – the biggest effects on West Seattle’s already-beleaguered drivers/bus riders/bikers are yet to come. SDOT consultant Josh Stepherson was at last night’s Southwest District Council meeting at South Seattle Community College to deliver the latest words of warning.

We’ve reported on this project before. But in case you’ve missed it, a quick definition: The Fauntleroy Expressway is the half-mile-long section of the high-rise bridge between Delridge and Avalon/Harbor. It was built in 1963, and it needs to be reinforced in case of earthquake. Stepherson called it the “weakest link in the corridor for (potential) structural failure during an earthquake.” (Some work was done in 1994, as explained here, so it’s not completely unreinforced.)

The work under way right now is around three of its support columns. But the really big part of the project will involve lifting sections of the “expressway” to replace its weight-bearing pads – and when that happens, there will be closures and detours.

Stepherson says there’s no exact timetable for it because the contractor will have to try lifting a section to see how it goes and how long it takes. Depending on what they determine, that part of the project could result in at least 15 separate closure periods.

He says SDOT is promising that no closures will happen, at ANY time of the day, during the looming October 21-31 Alaskan Way Viaduct shutdown. When the closures/detours do happen, they are expected to take place during evening/night/early morning hours, to minimize commute disruption – somewhere in the 7 pm-5 am vicinity. Nothing during peak hours, he insisted.

But during those off-peak times, the detours could be significant. While he says the Delridge onramp to The Bridge will remain open throughout, other approaches will be closed at times, and depending upon whether it’s deck-lifting work or under-the-bridge column work, people will be detoured either to Delridge (for example, if the Avalon/Harbor ramp is closed, people will be directed onto SW Genesee and down to Delridge) or, from Admiral, toward The Junction to get on via 35th/Fauntleroy.

You also might notice some lane reductions on Spokane Street under The Bridge as time goes by – right now, the project has taken up a portion of the Park and Ride spaces.

Asked what sort of notification SDOT is engaging in, Stepherson said some door-to-door visits are happening in the project area right now – for those who live near The Bridge, it could get loud. And they’re making the rounds at community meetings. You can read more about the project on its official webpage; according to SDOT, it is expected to be “substantially complete” by June of next year.

From last night’s Southwest District Council: Above, that’s SWDC co-chair Tony Fragada, also president of the Alki Community Council, peeking out from behind a map, as the council discussed plans to showcase neighborhood groups during the upcoming West Seattle Summer Fest (July 8-9-10 in The Junction). That’ll include ways, like the map, to show festivalgoers how to find the nearest neighborhood group (and how to know which neighborhood they’re in!) That was part of another busy agenda for SWDC, whose members represent community councils and other key organizations around the area. But one big topic took a fair amount of time – read on:

On the same day that the city officially invited West Seattle Triangle Advisory Group members – several of whom are also on the SWDC – to a a new round of meetings, for a Phase 2 (as reported here), council reps voiced dissatisfaction with how the process was unfolding. (That was discussed last time around, too.) When City Council President Richard Conlin took the floor later in the meeting for a different reason, they gave him an earful too.

SWDC co-chair Susan Melrose from the West Seattle Junction Association led the discussion, saying the first round of Triangle meetings yielded no consensus, and she would like to see the city Department of Planning and Development come forward with a proposal as a starting point for future discussion. Till now, Fairmount Community Association‘s Sharonn Meeks and Morgan Community Association‘s Chas Redmond agreed, the process has been “abstract” and without clear direction regarding what the Advisory Group was expected to do.

When they brought this up to Conlin, he said he was aware of the issues, but that Councilmembers Sally Clark – who chairs the Committee on the Built Environment - and Tom Rasmussen, who chairs the Transportation Committee, were most directly plugged in. Rasmussen, according to Conlin, is working on finding a consultant to work with DPD and the neighborhood to shape proposals that would then be vetted through a public process. Meeks offered that Triangle-area property owners must be engaged when those proposals roll out, and Conlin agreed.

He was there mostly to update SWDC on City Council priorities past and present. For this year, out of the council’s relatively long list, he focused mostly on these five: the Families and Education Levy, economic recovery, figuring out how to run Seattle Parks‘ community centers, rethinking mass transit, and library funding.

ADMIRAL WAY TRAFFIC SAFETY: Also last night, Southwest Precinct operations Lt. Pierre Davis (the precinct’s second-in-command) was in attendance, as is usually the case, and Admiral Neighborhood Association rep Karl de Jong had questions for him about the Aggressive Driver Response Team patrols that SPD has been featuring on its Blotter reports. Lt. Davis says the patrols are continuing and that it looks like they’ll continue into summer; the precinct gets weekly reports on what the ADRT is up to, and while there are still some “extreme speeders” getting ticketed (here’s our item about a March bridge ticket for 92 mph), in his view, the program seems to be working and drivers in general seem to be slowing down.

The Southwest District Council meets the first Wednesday night of the month, 7 pm, South Seattle Community College board room. No website yet but they’re working on it!

(One of the graphics shown at last month’s Triangle open house)
From this week’s Southwest District Council meeting: SWDC members say they’re not clear about where city planning for the West Seattle Triangle‘s future really stands, despite last month’s community open house, and their own city briefing days before it. So they want the project’s lead city planners Susan McLain and Robert Scully to return before the council and outline exactly what they’re doing next with feedback from those meetings, as well as with the plan itself, and what they’ll be telling city leaders. SWDC members also would like to talk with Councilmember Sally Clark, whose Committee on the Built Environment would theoretically eventually consider the results of the Triangle process. SWDC co-chair Susan Melrose of the West Seattle Junction Association and past co-chair Erica Karlovits of the Junction Neighborhood Organization also questioned whether the Triangle planning process had adequate community representation/participation and had truly resulted in consensus.

Another topic of concern for the council – the ongoing changes in the Department of Neighborhoods, which (among other things) provides staff assistance for district councils (whose members are all volunteers) – more after the jump:

The council also is disquieted about the still-unsettled district-coordinator situation. For years, its liaison and assigned staffer had been the Southwest District coordinator, Stan Lock. The mayor’s original budget proposal last year proposed closing the district’s Neighborhood Service Office in The Junction, which would have left Lock’s job up in the air. SWDC (and others) protested. The office stayed – but Lock was transferred to another part of the city, and because of some job cuts in the coordinators’ ranks, they were reorganized into regional groups.

Originally, there were to be four coordinators serving the South Region, including the Southwest and Delridge District Councils. But then longtime Delridge District coordinator Ron Angeles announced his retirement, and that left three coordinators for the South Region. At the last SWDC meeting, the coordinators said they would rotate council responsibilities; Steve Louie attended Wednesday’s meeting and said there will now be three coordinators, with no immediate plans announced to replace Angeles, so that means the plans worked out at the start of the year for splitting the regional duties would have to be revisited. However it is resolved, it was agreed that a lot of institutional knowledge in West Seattle is being lost with Lock’s transfer and Angeles’s retirement, and the SWDC is concerned about that.

ALKI CAR-FREE DAY BRIEFING: As previously reported, this year the “car-free day,” Seattle Summer Streets, will again follow the West Seattle 5K (presented by the West Seattle High School PTSA, with WSB among its co-sponsors) run/walk; the 5K is at 9:20 am May 22nd, with Summer Streets following 11 am-5 pm, so Alki SW will be closed all day long. SDOT reps showed the info-card they’ll be distributing, and asked SWDC reps if they had any “ideas” for activities that day; council co-chair Tony Fragada from the Alki Community Council offered one idea – he suggested SDOT should be briefing his group directly.

The Southwest District Council meets first Wednesday of most months, 7 pm, South Seattle Community College board room, public always welcome.

From tonight’s Southwest District Council meeting – the monthly gathering (usually at South Seattle Community College) of reps from major community groups and organizations around what the city calls the Southwest District (basically western West Seattle) – first three presentations summarized at 8:23 pm, the rest added at 9:13 pm:

WEST SEATTLE TRIANGLE – 85-FOOT ZONING? In advance of next Monday’s open-house community meeting, SWDC heard from city planners Susan McLain and Robert Scully, who have been working on the planning project outlining some possibilities for “how the streetscape environment could change over time,” as McLain put it – not as a freestanding project, but more, opportunities as some parts of the area are redeveloped. Scully talked about the evolving transportation picture in the area, and how bicycles and buses have to be accommodated as well as the cars and trucks for which it was originally designed. He also said the plan is in two phases – dealing with the area as it is now, with some improvements, and then a longer-term look.

They were asked about the long-discussed concept of turning Fauntleroy into a boulevard with a median; McLain noted that the road is so wide between Alaska and 35th that a boulevard could be created with the same number of travel lanes it has now. McLain said some have voiced fears that this planning process will spur change; she says instead it is more meant to acknowledge that there will be change, and to have some vision to go along with it. Will the zoning change? Right now, McLain noted, much of the area is “General Commercial 1,” but conversations with the citizens’ advisory group that met in recent months also included talk of changing to “neighborhood commercial” zoning – NC3, perhaps with an 85-foot height along SW Alaska between 38th and 41st – which she said would “encourage buildings to have windows and doors close to the sidewalk,” and to better use alleys, among other attributes.

The mention of that sort of height came as news to at least two advisory-group members who are also on the SWDC. One of them, Sharonn Meeks of the Fairmount Community Association, said the community groups have put a lot of time and effort into this process – when do they get something more from the city than plans? McLain didn’t have an answer, though she recalled there was talk of getting the Fauntleroy Way improvements into a future Capital Improvement Program for funding. She also said a plan like this would help pave the way for future proposals. Again, the place to find out more about the planning process is the open house next Monday night, 6-8 pm, Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon).

CRIME PREVENTION: Southwest Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Benjamin Kinlow continued his farewell tour, leading up to his March 15th retirement, urging everyone to continue being involved with Block Watch and other efforts. That segued right into Deanie Schwarz from the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network, noting that over the year since WSBWCN was founded, things have evolved – they are taking on a role beyond what they envisioned when they started the group as a networking opportunity for BW captains. She says they’re collaborating with the city and others in ways that might bring technology more deeply into their efforts.

As for the future of crime prevention services from the city, Kinlow deferred to whatever SPD chooses to announce in the future. Schwarz said their group’s understanding is that there is a review under way, to be complete by mid-March. Kinlow said he’s glad to see WSBWCN because he’d hate to see 30 years of Block Watch-building “just dissolve away” – Schwarz said that they need more volunteer power. (Besides the website, you can reach WSBWCN through its Facebook group and phone number, too.)

ELLIOTT BAY SEAWALL: Project manager Stephanie Brown led the briefing on the process of replacing the existing seawall, which she says was built in the ’30s. They’re hoping to decide on a preferred alternative by April, and then start construction in 2013 – their draft environmental-impact statement should be published by the end of this year. You can review the options by checking out the “virtual open house” you will find online here. “It’s not just a local project, but regional and even national in nature,” she explained. “There’s lots of transportation corridors that depend on it being there” – including freight, ferries, cruise ships, and “tons and tons of utilities” that the seawall protects, including one line that transports power between Canada and California, and another that supplies all the electricity for the downtown Seattle area.

They’re taking comments through February 8th, and Brown says the options are more flexible than you might think – the seawall’s location could be moved, and it could be a step-down wall instead of a flat-faced wall, in some spots. Here are the options they’re considering. The 1st phase of the project will cost $280 million, Brown says, but so far it’s only funded through design – they’re trying to get the feds to foot about two-thirds of the bill. Interesting note: They have to finish the first phase of the project before the central Alaskan Way Viaduct comes down, since there’ll be some detouring underneath the existing AWV. (The seawall replacement had been bundled with the viaduct replacement until, as Brown reminded SWDC, the deep-bore tunnel became the preferred alternative, at which time it became a city responsibility instead.)

Those are the three formal presentations slated for the meeting; we will add notes on other forthcoming discussions from its final half-hour.

ADDED 9:07 PM: The effects of the Department of Neighborhoods‘ changes also were discussed – first, with a farewell cake for Stan Lock, who served as Southwest District Coordinator until recent cuts led the city to shuffle personnel and move him to a new team in the Central Area:

SWDC co-chair Susan Melrose said the cake was donated by Bakery Nouveau. Lock said he already misses West Seattle. With him at the meeting tonight were Ed Pottharst and Steve Louie, two members of what is now a four-member “South” coordinator team. Pottharst said that for starters, accountabilities will rotate on a quarterly basis, and he is working with the SWDC this quarter.

The Southwest District Council meets the first Wednesday of each month in the board room at South Seattle Community College.

(Taken from Alki by SapphiraFey, shared via the WSB Flickr group pool)
West Seattle’s first major community-group meeting of the year is tonight – Southwest District Council, 7 pm, South Seattle Community College board room. Two major topics: First, an update on the Alaskan Way Viaduct project (just as the tunnel contract is about to be signed); second, the Department of Neighborhoods changes that will directly affect the council’s operations – as first reported here Monday, DON director Stella Chao will be at the meeting to explain. … If you hear a hint of a familiar summertime sound in the sky this afternoon, no, you’re not hearing things – as noted on Tuesday, Blue Angels jet #7 is coming to Seattle for Seafair winter meetings today and tomorrow, and expected to fly into Boeing Field (which might mean a West Seattle sighting) early this afternoon … Check the WSB West Seattle Events page for tonight’s entertainment highlights; have a great day!

This time, they’ll be waiting to hear why, even though that budget cut was canceled, a significant change has been made anyway (as first reported here last week). The original proposal was to close the Neighborhood Service Center in The Junction that serves the district – in essence, western West Seattle — and to eliminate the position held by its Neighborhood District Coordinator, Stan Lock. The council protested mightily – not just against losing the person who is a city liaison for them and for the neighborhood organizations and institutions they represent, but also against having the center shut down, since potential development does not seem imminent for the site it’s on. The City Council canceled the cut.

But three other district coordinator jobs were cut, meaning there are now 10 coordinators to serve 13 districts around the city, and Chao’s “interim” plan is to organize them into three teams serving regions of districts. Lock is being moved to a team that does not serve West Seattle; the Southwest District will be part of the region served by a team including Delridge District Coordinator Ron Angeles, and that entire team will be based out of the Delridge Neighborhood Service Center. How is that supposed to work? That’s what the council will be asking Chao on Wednesday; their meeting starts at 7 and she’s expected around 7:45, board room at South Seattle Community College (6000 16th SW), all welcome.

According to a memo from DON this afternoon, addressed to “community partners,” the 10 remaining coordinators will be organized into three teams, with each team having responsibility for a certain region of the city. The department calls this an “interim” model till it reports back to the City Council at midyear:

Neighborhood District Coordinators (NDC) Interim Service Model:

The 10 NDCs will serve the city through a team approach over three large geographic areas:

· The South area consists of 4 districts (Southeast, Greater Duwamish, Delridge and Southwest) and will be served by the South Team (NDCs – Ron Angeles, Steve Louie, Yun Pitre, and Ed Pottharst).

· The Central area consists of 5 districts (Central, East, Downtown, Lake Union and Magnolia/Queen Anne) and will be served by the Central Team (NDCs – Christa Dumpys, Tim Durkan, and Stan Lock).

· The North area consists of 4 districts (Northeast, North, Northwest, and Ballard) and will be served by the North Team (NDCs – Karen Ko, Rob Mattson, and Beth Pflug).

The remaining Neighborhood Service Centers are being reorganized for drop-in work space for the NDCs. They will also have drop-in work space in DON’s offices at the Seattle Municipal Tower.

The new team approach to serving neighborhoods and community partners is intended to continue providing the connection between you and the City. However, due to the fact that there are three fewer NDCs, there will be a decrease in the amount of time or depth of efforts any particular NDC will be able to spend with you and your group.

After reading this, we called DON’s Lois Maag for some clarifications. Since Lock, now on the Central Team, had worked out of the Southwest center, we asked who if anyone would be there; she says the South Team members will all be based out of Delridge, though they are expected to be “on the road” a lot.

Second question: Since previously one coordinator was assigned to each of the District Councils – which meet monthly and include reps of area organizations and community councils – how will they be staffed? Maag says that’s still being worked out, and she’ll have details on Monday, which is two days before the first potentially affected District Council meeting here in West Seattle, the SWDC, which meets Wednesday at 7 at South Seattle Community College.