Two updates related to the “Delridge Supportive Housing” 75-apartment project that Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) is seeking to build in the 5400 block of Delridge Way SW:
COUNTY FUNDING MEETING TOMORROW: While the city and state have committed funding to the project, the county’s final decision isn’t in yet. Tomorrow, the advisory group that makes recommendations to King County Executive Dow Constantine, the Regional Joint Recommendations Committee, will meet on Mercer Island. They were scheduled to decide last month, but deferred the decision after hearing from Delridge residents who came to their meeting to voice concerns. Tomorrow’s meeting is at 9;30 am at the Mercer Island Community Center, 8236 SE 24th Street. 10 people will be allowed to speak, according to North Delridge Neighborhood Council‘s Kirsten Smith.
NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL DISCUSSION: The project was a major topic of discussion at NDNC’s meeting on Monday night. Patrick Baer recapped the first Delridge Community Forum, last month’s big gathering about the project, saying it had “successes and failures,” amid “logistical issues we never expected,” but overall met the goal of providing information to the community.
As he noted, he and other DCF volunteers have continued in that role, posting copious quantities of material online at delridgeforum.blogspot.com – and if you’ve been looking into the issue and have come across information to share with the community, e-mail him at delridgeforum@gmail.com.
Meantime, NDNC’s Smith says they’re trying to set up a meeting shortly before the project’s first Design Review Board meeting (6:30 pm December 8th at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center), to provide community members with information on how the process works. Since there’s “limited public comment” at those meetings, Vonetta Mangaoang suggested a “letter-writing campaign.”
That touched off a discussion about NDNC’s role in contentious issues like the DESC project – and how that role needs to be defined, before any sort of communication goes out on NDNC’s behalf; should the council be advocates, facilitators, or something else entirely? One discussion about a possible letter focused on the statement that DESC executive director Bill Hobson had made at the June 27th community meeting on the project, that if the community wanted them to exclude sex offenders from the resident population, they would. It was pointed out there already are sex offenders living in the neighborhood (as with any neighborhood), and that DESC clients have been described as “so disabled they are unable to offend.” There was no ultimate consensus on a next step re: the council’s role, except that it had to be determined before further action.
NDNC’s meeting also included another update on the 26th/Dakota project – specifically the “park”-like improvements the developers are proposing across the street – and officer elections; more on those in a separate story.
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